Sponsor: CWRT Congress
 

HOW TO WATCH: To register for this FREE lecture, copy and paste this link into your browser: https://app.aplos.com/aws/events/158_john_l_hopkins

TOPIC:  It was front-page news throughout the country—the largest gathering of Union and Confederate veterans ever held.  The 1913 Gettysburg reunion is a story of 53,000 old comrades and former foes reunited, and of the tension, even half a century later, between competing narratives of reconciliation and remembrance.

John L. Hopkins fills his marvelous account with detail from the letters, diaries, and published accounts of Union and Confederate veterans, the extensive archival records of the reunion’s organizers, and the daily stories filed by the scores of reporters who covered it. This is the first full story of this extraordinary event’s genesis and planning, the obstacles overcome on the way to making it a reality.

SPEAKER: John L. Hopkins is a communication and public relations professional with more than three decades of experience in strategic communication planning, issues management, media relations, crisis communication, news and feature writing, and team building in higher education, nonprofit, and agency settings. He was born and raised in New York City, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Williams College, and was transplanted to the Midwest in the mid-90s. John and his wife, Apple, have three grown daughters and one sweet, goofy golden retriever.