Civil War Seminar: A Culinary Perspective

Civil War Seminar: A Culinary Perspective
Scene from Camp Douglas, Chicago; courtesy of the Chicago History Museum CHM/file
Civil War Seminar: A Culinary Perspective
Scene from Camp Douglas, Chicago; courtesy of the Chicago History Museum CHM/file

Civil War Seminar: A Culinary Perspective

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Drawing on research from his recently published book, Professor Andrew F. Smith examines the crucial role of food to the course and outcome of the Civil War. In his book Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War, Smith asks if hunger defeated the Confederacy. He takes a gastronomical look at the war and its legacy. From the first shot fired at Fort Sumter to the surrender of the Confederacy in April 1865, food—or its absence—played a crucial role in how the war was fought and its outcome and how we eat and drink today.

Recorded Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at the Chicago History Museum.