From the award-winning historian and best-selling author Allen Guelzo comes the definitive biography of Robert E. Lee. An intimate look at the Confederate general in all his complexity—his hypocrisy and courage, his inner turmoil and outward calm, his disloyalty and his honor.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome three-time Lincoln Prize recipient Allen Guelzo and award-winning talk show host Scott LaMar for a livestream discussion on Guelzo’s new work Robert E. Lee: A Life.

This livestream event is free and open to the public, with registration. Book sales are encouraged through the Midtown Scholar Bookstore.

About the book:

From the award-winning historian and best-selling author of Gettysburg comes the definitive biography of Robert E. Lee. An intimate look at the Confederate general in all his complexity—his hypocrisy and courage, his inner turmoil and outward calm, his disloyalty and his honor.

Robert E. Lee is one of the most confounding figures in American history. Lee betrayed his nation in order to defend his home state and uphold the slave system he claimed to oppose. He was a traitor to the country he swore to serve as an Army officer, and yet he was admired even by his enemies for his composure and leadership. He considered slavery immoral, but benefited from inherited slaves and fought to defend the institution. And behind his genteel demeanor and perfectionism lurked the insecurities of a man haunted by the legacy of a father who stained the family name by declaring bankruptcy and who disappeared when Robert was just six years old.

In Robert E. Lee, the award-winning historian Allen Guelzo has written the definitive biography of the general, following him from his refined upbringing in Virginia high society, to his long career in the U.S. Army, his agonized decision to side with Virginia when it seceded from the Union, and his leadership during the Civil War. Above all, Guelzo captures Robert E. Lee in all his complexity--his hypocrisy and courage, his outward calm and inner turmoil, his honor and his disloyalty.

About the speakers:

Allen C. Guelzo is Senior Research Scholar at the Council of Humanities at Princeton University. He is the author of several books about the Civil War and early nineteenth-century American history. He has been the recipient of the Lincoln Prize three times, the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize for Military History, and many other honors. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades. Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of the daily Smart Talk news and public affairs program on 89.5 & 93.3. Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program Smart Talk and the Issues PA series on the Pennsylvania Public Television Network.

LaMar has won more than a dozen Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcast Awards since 2000 and has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards. LaMar and Smart Talk have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s first “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania. LaMar is a native of Coatesville, PA.