April 7, 2011 — This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. University of Virginia history professor Gary Gallagher will read from and discuss his new book, "The Union War," on April 20 at 5 p.m. in the U.Va. Bookstore mezzanine. His talk, free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.

Gallagher, Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, is a Civil War expert who has published six books on the topic, including "The Confederate War." He has edited or co-authored at least a dozen more books. His previous book, "Causes Won, Lost and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War," came out in 2008. He joined the U.Va. faculty in 1998.

History colleague James M. McPherson of Princeton University, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning "Battle Cry of Freedom," recently wrote:
 
"Gary Gallagher, more carefully and more precisely than anyone else, enables the reader to understand why so many citizen-soldiers were willing to imperil their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to preserve the United States as one nation, indivisible and, in Lincoln's words at Gettysburg, to give the 'new nation' brought forth in 1776 a 'new birth of freedom' in 1863."