GARY GERSTLE IN CONVERSATION WITH MISHA GLENNY
SONNTAG / SUNDAY, 28.09.2025 / 14h00
AKADEMIE DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE WIEN, SITZUNGSSAAL
The North’s decisive military victory in the American Civil War led to the abolition of slavery across the Union. Despite this, some of the original underlying causes of the conflict re-emerged in the 20th century, apparently unresolved. The issue of race was the most obvious, but other economic and constitutional issues have also proved problematic. Some have even argued that the North’s failure to exploit its victory allowed profound questions of identity to fester and have even contributed to the rise of populism, personified by President Donald Trump. In his conversation with IWM Rector MISHA GLENNY, historian and professor at the University of Cambridge GARY GERSTLE will consider American history since the fall of communism through the prism of the Civil War.
GARY GERSTLE is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus and Paul Mellon Director of Research in American History at the University of Cambridge. He has written or edited numerous books, including two prizewinners, Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present (Princeton University Press, 2015) and American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 2017). His latest book is The Rise of Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era (Oxford University Press, 2022).
© GG