Join us to hear from this acclaimed historian, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, about A Fate Worse than Hell, his harrowing new history of Civil War prisoner of war camps, North and South.

It is newly estimated that 750,000 soldiers died in the American Civil War. Less well-known are the experiences and trials of the roughly 400,000 Union and Confederate troops captured and imprisoned in Civil War prison camps. Based on first-person accounts, photographs, and contemporaneous journalism, historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage reveals such prisoner of war camps as Andersonville, Elmira, and Point Lookout. He explores the experiences of captives and the roots and consequences of mass incarceration during America’s bloodiest conflict. The most comprehensive work to date about the life of America’s prisoners during the Civil War, A Fate Worse Than Hell exposes this national violence that imprisoned more Americans during wartime than ever before or since. Don’t miss his illustrated presentation and discussion with Chief Genealogist David Allen Lambert, a specialist in military history.  

“Gripping… An essential contribution to this rethinking [of the Civil War]” - Drew Gilpin Faust, The Atlantic

“Groundbreaking… Deeply researched and well written… A sensitive and important study of a strangely neglected topic.” - Wall Street Journal

Guggenheim Fellow W. Fitzhugh Brundage is the William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for his book Civilizing Torture, he lives in Chapel Hill.

David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist at American Ancestors, is an author and internationally recognized speaker on the topics of genealogy and history. His work has been published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, the New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Rhode Island Roots, and Mayflower Descendant, among other publications. He was the longtime former co-host of the Extreme Genes podcast. David is the Vice Commander of the Massachusetts MOLLUS (Military Order of the Loyal Legion) chapter, and a former Civil War reenactor with the 12th Massachusetts Infantry.