morning to honor my friend jim mcpherson and i want to thank the american historical association and vernon burton for an opportunity to pay tribute to my friend jim mcpherson. for those of you who don't know jim, he's a very humble man. i was thinking about this, jim, it could be worse. pat could have provided to katherine clinton that photograph of you and me wearing skirts in israel. i could just see the title, jim mcpherson, cross dresser. so in that vein, i've 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 is in the area of military history that he's made the most lasting contributions. so let me make a few points about some of his scholarship. first of all, "battle cry of freedom" 25 years later it is still the single finest volume on the civil war. bar none, no competition. it's an extraordinary exploration into politic, military, diplomatic, cul

i'm vernon burton. for 37 years i taught history from university of illinois, about 130 miles south of where we are this morning. i wrote a book, age of lincoln, became a lincoln scholar, moved back to north carolina where i found many folks don't like lincoln as they do here in the land of lincoln. i now teach at clemson built on the plantation of calhoun. clemson was founded by the prototype of the demagogue tillman and where do they put my office strom thurman institute. i hope my choice of what i study and where i love will not have you questioning my judgment on these historians who are assessing the many contributions of jim mcpherson princeton george henry davis 86 professor of american history emeritus. jim mcpherson served on the society of history sans and american historical association. he contributed a slew of important laws, published books, journals, essays, written introductions to numerous published works. both for cause and comrades and tried by war. abraham lincoln as commander in chi

first i'm vernon burton. for 34 years i taught southern history at the university illinois about 130 miles south of where we are this morning. i wrote a book, "the age of lincoln." became a lincoln scholar. moved back home to south carolina where i discovered many folks don't like lincoln as they do here in the land of lincoln. i now teach at clemson university, built on the plantation of john c. calhoun who introduced the post slavery argument in the u.s. senate. clemson was founded by the prototype of the racial demagogue pitch for ben tillman. where did they put my office? the strom thurmond institute. i hope that my choice of what i study and where i live will have not have you question my judgment on the historians who today are assessing the many contributions of jim mcpherson. george preston, jim mcpherson has served as president of both the society of american historians and american historical association. at my last count he had published 21 books, added significant other volumes, contributed a slew