On June 22, 2016, Edward L. Ayers spoke with Paul Levengood in a Banner Lecture entitled “The Roads from War to Reconstruction and Beyond.”

Reconstruction is central to American history, deeply interesting, and yet also deeply confusing. This conversation with Paul Levengood, VHS President and CEO, will attempt to unravel some of the complexities and mysteries of those years and why those years still matter today.

Edward Ayers is President Emeritus of the University of Richmond, where he now serves as Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities. A historian of the American South, Ayers has written and edited ten books. The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2013.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.