“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.” – William Tecumseh Sherman
The UTC Annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression is designed to share current research and to develop a series of monographs on the 19th century press, the Civil War and the press, and 19th century concepts of free expression.
The symposium will be held Thursday – Saturday, November 7 – 9. It will begin Thursday afternoon at the Sheraton Read House Hotel and continue Friday and Saturday at the UTC University Center. All paper sessions are free and open to the public.
Papers will deal with U.S. mass media of the 19th century, the Civil War in fiction and history, freedom of expression in the 19th century, presidents and the 19th century press, images of race and gender in the 19th century press, and sensationalism and crime in 19th century newspapers.
Papers from the first five conferences were published by Transaction Publishers in 2000 as a book of readings called The Civil War and the Press. Purdue University Press also published papers from past conferences in three distinctly different books titled Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Cold Mountain (2007), Words at War: The Civil War and American Journalism (2008), and Seeking a Voice: Images of Race and Gender in the 19th Century Press (2009). Recently, Transaction Publishers published Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19th Century Reporting (2013).
This event is sponsored by David B. Sachsman, the director of the conference and holder of the UTC West Chair of Excellence, the UTC Departments of Communication and History, the Walter and Leona Schmitt Family Foundation Research Fund, and the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Fund for the Symposium.
See the complete program here.
