This is thinking in public a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

frontline theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Moel, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

in Louisville, Kentucky.

Edward Ayers combined some of the most interesting responsibilities.

He has been president of the University of

Richmond but he is also one of the most published historians of American

history he's a scholar he has also been involved in the academy. Indeed, he has served as President the Organization of American Historians,

completing his term in 2017-2018.

President Barack Obama awarded in the National Humanities Medal in 2013, he's the author of some

of the most interesting and informative books in American history, including a two-work project entitled The Valley of the Shadow.

His newest book, The Thin Light of Freedom,

The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America

has received the Lincoln Prize

from the Gilder Leherman Institute and Gettysburg College.

His earlier volume, in the presence of mine enemies, Civil War in the Heart of America,

the first volume of this Valley of the Shadow Project, won the esteemed Bancroft Prize and it

also won the Beverage Prize. A graduate of the University of Tennessee he

holds a PhD from Yale University and he is currently the Tucker Boatwright

professor of the humanities at the University of Richmond where he is also

President Emeritus. Edward Ayers, welcome to thinking in public.

Thanks very much. Glad to be in public. Thanks very much.

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