NEH picks McPherson for top honor
James McPherson, George Henry Davis '86 Professor of
American History, has been named the 2000 Jefferson Lecturer
in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the
Humanities in Washington, DC.
The annual lectureship, named to honor the scholarly
accomplishments of the third president of the United States,
is "the highest honor the federal government bestows for
distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities,"
according to NEH spokesperson Jim Turner.
NEH chair William Ferris credits McPherson, who is the
author of a
dozen books about the Civil War, with "establishing the
highest standards for scholarship and public education about
the Civil War and providing leadership in the movement to
protect the nation's battlefields."
McPherson has titled his lecture, "'For a Vast Future
Also': Lincoln and the Millennium." The quotation, he says,
is from Lincoln's State of the Union message to Congress on
December 3, 1861. In this message Lincoln explained the
importance of the Civil War: "The struggle of today," he
wrote, "is not altogether for today--it is for a vast future
also. [It] embraces more than the fate of these
United States. It presents to the whole family of man the
question whether" (as he expressed it in the Gettysburg
Address two year later) a nation "conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal
... can long endure."
Lecture is open to public
McPherson says his lecture will be "aimed at a broad
audience--an audience beyond, but certainly not excluding,
the academy." And while his subject has political and
military aspects, "It has strong resonance with the
humanities as well, because it deepens our understanding of
relations among human beings."
The Jefferson Lecture has been presented since 1972.
Among previous lecturers are Bernard Lewis, Cleveland E.
Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus (1990),
and Toni Morrison, Robert F. Goheen Professor in the
Humanities (1996).
McPherson will deliver the Jefferson Lecture on March 27
at 7:30 pm in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts. It is free and open to the public. Those
interested in attending should call (202) 606-8446 or e-mail
info@neh.gov to request an invitation.
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