our first speaker will be kathryn clinton who really needs no introduction. she has chaired -- she is the chaired professor of u.s. history at belfast. she did her graduate work with jim. she is a pioneer in many areas and people particularly of my generation members of pioneer in women's history, especially southern women's history and her reaching out beyond the profession to bring history to all sorts of groups, including children. kathryn? >> thank you. thanks very much. >> we're going to have a powerpoint here. >> thank you for your indulgence. those who know jim mcpherson know he's not in favor of relying on technology. but i thought on this one occasion he might be indulgent because i did conspire with his life partner, pat, to try and present some unknown sides of mcpherson which are best demonstrated visually. so this kind gentleman has volunteered from the office, from the audience. okay. there we go. we are pleased to be here to honor the private man and the public historian. as we were given only a brief time to sum up the legendary career of a ma

pat could have provided to kathryn clinton that photograph of you and me wearing skirts in israel. i can just see the title. jim mcpherson, cross dresser. so in that vein i have entitled my talk jim mcpherson, closet military historian. although jim began his career as an abolitionist historian, his greatest contributions i think are to the field of military history, not that his early career was fraught with failure, mind you. it did get him tenure at princeton. but i think it in is the area of military history that he has made the most lasting contributions. so let me make a few points about some of his scholarship. first of all, of course, "battle cry freedom." 20 years later it is still the single finest volume on the civil war, bar none, no competition. it's an extraordinary exploration into politics, military, diplomatic, cultural, racial, social history. it's an incredible achievement. jim once told me that he was off on math. but if you ever look at the economics and financing of the war, they are absolutely phenomenal. it's a truly extraordinary achievement. i want to focu