Second Friday Lecture: Theodore Roosevelt and the Civil War

Friday, July 14  |  12:00pm – 1:00pm  |  Speaker: Calvin Watts, Academic Advisor, UW-Parkside

Only two years old when Fort Sumter was fired upon, Theodore Roosevelt would spend the rest of his life reckoning with, and trying to live up to, the legacy of the Civil War generation. Acutely aware of the sacrifices made by those who had served their country, and his father’s choice to not take up arms, TR would engage with personalities who had served on both sides all his life, and was always measuring himself against these individuals. When a global crisis on par with the Civil War finally came in 1914, he would send his sons to France to play the part he had always dreamed of. After years of expounding the glories of war, he would pay the ultimate price as a father, forever shattering his long-held notions of duty and honor.