"Midnight on the Potomac": Author Scott Ellsworth M.A.'77, Ph.D.'82 in Conversation with Dr. Ariana Curtis A.B.'02

Join us for a virtual conversation with New York Times bestselling author Scott Ellsworth M.A.'77, Ph.D.'82, featuring his latest book Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, The Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America. As we consider America's 250th birthday, this one-hour discussion will invite us to reflect on pivotal moments in our country's history - and how the events ending the Civil War shape our understanding of America today and in the years to come.

The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Ariana Curtis A.B.'02, curator at The National Museum of African American History and Culture. The conversation will be recorded, and a link to the recording will be sent to all registrants following the event.

Told with a page-turning pace, Midnight on the Potomac is a compelling new look at the last, desperate months of the Civil War, when the fate of the United States lay in the balance. A saga of titanic battles, political upheaval, and the long-forgotten Confederate terror war against the loyal citizens of the North, readers will go behind the scenes in the White House, along the battlefronts in Virginia, and into the conspiracies of spies and secret agents. Lincoln walks these pages, as do Grant and Sherman. But so do common soldiers, runaway slaves, and an intrepid female war correspondent named Lois Adams. Rarely, if ever, has a book about the Civil War featured such a rich and diverse cast of characters.

It will also shatter some long-held myths. For more than a century and a half, the Lincoln assassination has been portrayed as the sole brainchild of a disgruntled, pro-South actor. But based on both obscure contemporary accounts and decades of long-ignored scholarship, Ellsworth reveals that for nearly one year before the tragic events at Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth had been working closely with agents of the Confederate Secret Service. And the real Booth is far from the one we’ve long been presented with.

Midnight on the Potomac is a new kind of book about the Civil War covering the Confederate attempt to burn down New York City, how Lincoln almost lost the presidency, the Rebel general who nearly captured Washington, and how thousands of enslaved African Americans freed themselves—and helped secure their nation’s survival. In an age of deep political division, Scott Ellsworth’s book is an eloquent and gripping testament to the courage, grit, and greatness of the American people.

Scott Ellsworth is a writer and historian based in Ann Arbor, where he also teaches at the University of Michigan. The author of five books, one of which, The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City’s Search for Justice, was longlisted for both the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal. Formerly a historian at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, he has written about American history and culture for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Described by one reviewer as “a historian with the soul of a poet,” Scott is known to many in the Duke community as the author of The Secret Game, about the legendary—and covert—1944 basketball contest between the Duke Medical School and what is known today as North Carolina Central University.

Ariana Curtis is a curator at The National Museum of African American History and Culture where she is responsible for research and collections that explore relationships between Latinx, Diasporic, and African American histories and cultures. Her research areas and subject matter expertise include race and racial identification, and Black histories and cultures in the Americas.

Dr. Curtis earned her B.A. in International Studies at Duke University and her Ph.D. in Anthropology at American University. At Duke, Dr. Curtis serves on the Library Advisory Board.