Gettysburg College’s annual Fortenbaugh Lecture will feature a roundtable discussion with David Blight, Drew Gilpin Faust, and Stephanie McCurry—three of the field’s most influential scholars—moderated by Profs. Jim Downs and Scott Hancock.
Since 1962, Gettysburg College’s annual Robert Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture—jointly sponsored by the Civil War Institute and the Department of History—has commemorated the Nov. 19 anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address with a lecture or panel discussion, offering insight into cutting-edge conversations in the field of Civil War history. From the inaugural invitation to Bruce Catton in 1962 to today, the Fortenbaugh Lecture has brought generations of eminent historians to Gettysburg to explore the Civil War era and its legacy from multiple angles, prioritizing big ideas and dynamic presentations.
The 2025 lecture, “The Past, Present, and Future of the Civil War,” will follow a conversational roundtable format and feature three well-recognized historians whose work has not only transformed the field of Civil War studies, but also reached beyond the field to exert a profound impact on the writing of history more broadly. David Blight, Drew Gilpin Faust, and Stephanie McCurry’s scholarly and professional contributions are particularly notable for the way their work has resonated among both scholarly and popular audiences, changing the conversations about Civil War history taking place both inside and outside the academic world.
Prof. Jim Downs, Gilder Lehrman NEH Chair of Civil War Era Studies and History, and History Prof. Scott Hancock will moderate the discussion.
David W. Blight
David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” “American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era,” “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies.
Blight has worked on Douglass much of his professional life and has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He writes frequently for the popular press, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other journals. He has always been a teacher first, beginning his career as a high school history teacher.
Drew Gilpin Faust
Drew Gilpin Faust is Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor Emerita at Harvard University, where she served as president from 2007 to 2018. She came to Harvard in 2001 as the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University after 25 years on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.
Faust is the author of seven books, including “Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury,” published in August 2023. Her earlier book, “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War,” was awarded the Bancroft Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and was recognized by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2008. “This Republic of Suffering” is the basis for a 2012 Emmy-nominated episode of the PBS American Experience documentaries titled “Death and the Civil War,” directed by Ric Burns.
Stephanie McCurry
Stephanie McCurry teaches at Columbia University, where she is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History in Honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower. She is the author of three books, including “Women’s War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War” and “Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South,” which won numerous book awards, including the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Merle Curti Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
McCurry’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Irish Times. McCurry is currently working on a new history of Reconstruction in the United States that identifies the intimate as a domain of power, reframing the scale and challenge of the era.
Event Details
The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. at the Majestic Theater (25 Carlisle St. in Gettysburg) on Wednesday, Nov. 19, with a book signing and dessert reception to follow. Free tickets are available at the Majestic box office or by calling 717-337-8200.
The lecture will be livestreamed through the Civil War Institute (CWI) YouTube channel. For more information, please contact the CWI office at 717-337-6590 or civilwar@gettysburg.edu.
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Photos by Abbey Frisco and Shawna Sherrell
Posted: 10/20/25