Professor Edward J. Blum of SDSU will speak on “Counting in a Time of Crisis: A Discussion on the Census and the Civil War.” He will explore how the United States conducted its national census amid the upheaval of the Civil War and how President Abraham Lincoln turned to census officials and population data as tools of wartime governance.

Edward J. Blum is a professor of nineteenth-century United States History in the History Department at San Diego State University. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His research, writing, and teaching involve politics, constitutionalism, war, society, and culture in the United States from the founding of the nation through the era of the Civil War. He has particular interests in how demography, statistics, and the Census play roles in shaping the course of United States history. He is also the author of a number of books including War Is All Hell: The Nature of Evil and the Civil War.

The talk will be held at the Mission Valley Branch Library located at 2123 Fenton Pkwy, San Diego, CA. at 3:00 pm. Feel free to join us!