Judith Giesberg, Ph.D., associate professor in the history department, will discuss her new book, The Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front, at the final talk in the Scholarship@Villanova lecture series. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 24 at 4:30 p.m. in Falvey Memorial Library’s first floor lounge. Dr. Giesberg will present the incredible story of women of color who bravely defied segregation by launching campaigns during the Civil War.

Dr. Giesberg’s book highlights how the war, though it brought much disruption to the North, educated black women on the importance of civil rights, particularly for black soldiers, and provided possibilities, opportunities and challenges for women and children on the home front.

This talk will illustrate the variety of experiences of women in the Civil War’s northern home front.  Whether they were white working-class draft-resisters, seamstresses or cartridge-formers employed at the federal arsenals, or wives and daughters of Philadelphia’s elite black activists, women sought to give the war meaning at home.

Dr Giesberg has taught at Villanova University for eight years. She teaches courses in Civil War and Reconstruction and the History of Childhood in the U.S. Copies of her book will be sold at the event.

This event, sponsored by Falvey Memorial Library, is open to the public.

By Akua K. Adoo, Publications & Communication intern