Leading historian Holzer: How the Civil War transformed journalism, April 11

The impact the Civil War had in transforming journalism in the United States -- and worldwide -- will be examined at a special Book and Author Night in the Club's Holeman Lounge at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 11. Harold Holzer, one of the world's leading authorities on the political culture of the Civil War era and on Abraham Lincoln, will be the guest speaker.

The April 11 event at the Club is co-sponsored by the History & Heritage Committee and the Book & Author Committee. It is free for NPC members and $5 for non-members. Reservations are required -- call (202) 662-7523.

Holzer will speak -- not coincidentally -- on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Confederate bombardment of the Union fortifications at Fort Sumter, S.C. -- the first shots fired in what remains America's bloodiest war.

The Civil War transformed American journalism with the advent of eye-witness battlefront correspondents; breakthroughs in communications technology like the telegraph and photography; a huge increase in newspaper readership; the rise of great pictorial magazines like Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; and an increased role for women journalists. It also spawned a disorganized and sporatic system of government censorship that failed to prevent readers from staying surprisingly well-informed.

Holzer is the acclaimed author, co-author and/or editor of 36 books and some 450 articles in both popular magazines and scholarly journals. His latest books are The New York Times Complete Civil War 1861-1865 (co-edited with Craig L. Symonds) and The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory (co-edited with Symonds and Frank J. Williams).

A six-time winner of the Barondess Award of the Civil War Roundtable of New York, Holzer also received the prestigious Lincoln Prize for his 2005 book, Lincoln at Cooper Union. In 2008 he was the recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. He also served as chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, created by Congress to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 2009. In addition to his role as an historian, author and lecturer, Holzer is senior vice president for external affairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.