OLLI Reads is once again delighted to present Scott Ellsworth to discuss his newest book. Deeply researched yet captivatingly written, Midnight on the Potomac is a new kind of book about the Civil War. It is a riveting saga of the war’s last year and a revealing new account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Ellsworth re-examines that final year of the Civil War, arguing the Lincoln assassination was part of a larger Confederate plot, not the act of a lone gunman, and he highlights the crucial roles of Black Americans, women (including a journalist from Michigan), and a diverse coalition of Americans in securing the Union’s victory. In describing an age of deep political division worse than our own, Scott Ellsworth’s book is an eloquent and gripping testament to the courage, grit, and greatness of the American people.
Scott Ellsworth was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Educated in the Tulsa public schools, he studied history at Reed College, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Duke University where he was also a member of the Duke Oral History Program. Formerly a historian with the Smithsonian Institution, he has written about American history for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, and he has appeared on National Public Radio, the Today Show, PBS’s The American Experience, the History Channel and in both film and broadcast documentaries. Scott Ellsworth joined University of Michigan’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies faculty in 2007 and teaches courses on African American history, Southern literature, and crime and social justice in contemporary U.S. society. He has been described as a historian with the soul of a poet, and he is also such a fascinating speaker.
Midnight on the Potomac will be on sale at the Fall Kickoff and again on the day of the event.
