About the Program
David Goldfield, history professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, examines the social and political factors leading up to the start of the Civil War, namely the role that religion played. Mr. Goldfield reports on how evangelicalism provided a backdrop of good versus evil that permeated the split between the North and South. The author argues that a politically mediated resolution to the fissure between the two sides became unrealistic due to the inclusion of religion in political affairs. David Goldfield speaks at the Georgia Center for the Book in Decatur, Georgia.