The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War - The Eve of War

Through searchable censuses, newspapers, diaries, military records, maps, images, and other sources this program tells the story of the Civil War as seen by the people of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Augusta County, Virginia. Details week by week and household by household, the differences and commonalities of the North and South.Examines the Civil War from the perspective of two communities, separated by only a few hundred miles, but on opposite sides of the conflict

Edward L Ayers is Hugh P. Kelley Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Anne S. Rubin is project manager of the Valley Project and an associate at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia.