The Emancipation Proclamation: Was it all it was cracked up to be?
Sat, 17 Sept
|London
EVENT CANCELLED The Emancipation Proclamation changed the nature of the American Civil War, but was it the great liberal document it is sometimes presented as? Len Riedel has pondered this subject for several years, and in this talk he presents his conclusions.
Time & Location
17 Sept 2022, 13:00 – 16:00 BST
London, Civil Service Club, Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HJ, UK
About the Event
The talk will start with the background of Union War Aims and Lincoln’s relations with his department and field commanders. It will look at contrasting views of war prosecution and how they played from June 1861 through to the Summer of 1862, at how Lincoln orchestrated and assimilated political pressures from supporters and critics leading into the elections of 1862, and how precedents such as the Confiscation Acts set the stage for Lincoln’s determination to play the “Race Card”. It will look at why there was a preliminary announcement prior to the elections, before looking at the final proclamation, how it was a targeted political document, and what it was and wasn’t. Riedel’s analysis and conclusions are admiring of Lincoln but at the same time tempered by the clearly limited intent and extent of the Proclamation. The talk will close with analysis of the later political maturity and genius of Lincoln until his untimely death in April 1865.
About the Speaker
Major Len Riedel is a retired USAF officer who was the Director of Air Traffic Control and Airspace Management for the US 3rd Air Force, RAF Mildenhall from July 1981 until December 1983. Len a 1975 graduate of Virginia Military Institute has a masters degree in History with an emphasis in Policy and Strategy. He was a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London for more than 20 years.
In 1994, Len founded and continues to run the Blue and Gray Education Society a registered US charity committed to preserving and interpreting the American Civil War. Since then they have conducted in excess of 500 study tours, developed and installed over 200 interpretative markers, 17 cannon, 20 scholarly monographs and 5 full length books four with the National Geographic Society. Len is the editor and driving force behind the top selling guide book, The Civil War, A Travelers Guide released in 2016. A companion book, An Explorer’s Guide to America’s Revolutionary War by Bert Dunkerly is due for release in October.
Len does not as a rule accept speaking engagements, so we are privileged to welcome him to London for this meeting.
Discounted tickets are available to Full Time Students, please contact us for further details.