News from the Hilltop

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 10, 2012

Birmingham-Southern provost featured in PBS documentary on "Death and the Civil War"

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Birmingham-Southern College Provost Dr. Mark S. Schantz is featured in a PBS documentary, "Death and the Civil War," which will premiere as part of the American Experience series on Alabama Public Television on Sept. 18, 2012.

The film is by Ric Burns, who co-produced the award-winning series "The Civil War," and is based in part on Schantz's research into American attitudes toward death in the decades before and after the war, as discussed in his book, "Awaiting the Heavenly Country: the Civil War and America's Culture of Death."

The film, which looks at how Americans' understanding of death was changed by the war, will air the day after the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862), still the bloodiest single day in American history.

"A war in which more than 600,000 men—possibly far more—died on American soil is almost inconceivable to us today," said Schantz, who is also a professor of history at BSC. "But the young men who fought believed that their achievements would be cherished forever by posterity, and that their deaths might be redemptive, heroic, or even beautiful."

Birmingham-Southern will host a free, public screening of the film at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, on campus in the Norton Theatre. Schantz will discuss the film and answer questions immediately following the showing. The college's president, General Charles C. Krulak, whose own approach to death on the battlefield was shaped by his four decade career in the U.S. Marine Corps, will introduce the premiere.

Dr. Mark S. Schantz became provost at Birmingham-Southern College in July of 2009. The Washington, D.C., native received his bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from George Washington University, his master's from Yale University, and his doctorate from Emory University. He completed the Management Development Program in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University in summer 2007. He has published and lectured extensively on American history.

"Dr. Schantz is an excellent example of how we value teaching, research, and service at Birmingham-Southern," said Gen. Krulak. "He is our top academic officer; his work is being highlighted on a national stage; and at the same time he is teaching a course on W.E.B. DuBois for honors students and acting as an academic advisor, just as all of our full-time faculty members do."

This event counts towards a CEIS credit.

For more information:

Death and the Civil War: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/death
Alabama Public Television: www.aptv.org