Telling Secrets, Spying History: Mary Bowser Can Tell Us About America's Past

Professor Lois Leveen holds degrees in history and literature from Harvard

Telling Secrets, Spying History:  Mary Bowser Can Tell Us About America's Past
Thursday, November 8, 3:00 pm, George Mason University, Johnson Center, Third Floor, Room D

Join Dr. Lois Leveen for a discussion of the research behind The Secrets of Mary Bowser (HarperCollins), her novel based on the true story of a former Richmond, Virginia slave who became a Union spy in the Confederate White House. The book provides readers insight into the lives of free and enslaved blacks in urban, industrialized Richmond in the 1840s and 50s, and into how blacks and whites worked together in the pro-Union underground that operated in Richmond during the war. The talk will also explore what it means to teach--and learn--American history through fiction.

Dr. Leveen holds degrees in history and literature from Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and UCLA. A former faculty member at UCLA and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, she gives talks nationally and internationally on American history, literature, and culture, with special emphasis on race. She is a regular contributor to “Disunion,” the New York Times’ ongoing coverage of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Her poetry, short humor pieces, and scholarly essays have appeared in many publications and on National Public Radio. 

What happens when ordinary people do extraordinary things?  Read The Secrets of Mary Bowser  

Follow award-winning author Lois Leveen  http://www.facebook.com/LoisLeveen