Savannah, GA, February 25, 2026 – As part of its statewide commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) will present “A United States but a Divided America: How We Have Celebrated the Nation’s Birthday During Turbulent Times.” This special panel discussion will examine how major national commemorations have unfolded during periods of deep division. It will take place tomorrow, February 26, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at Christ Church Episcopal in Savannah.
The event will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend.
The free public program will feature a conversation with distinguished historians Dr. William Hitchcock and Dr. Elizabeth Varon, both professors at the University of Virginia, and will be moderated by Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at GHS. The discussion will explore how the nation marked its Centennial after the Civil War and Reconstruction and the Bicentennial following the upheavals of the 1960s, Vietnam, Watergate, and the Cold War—revealing how earlier generations navigated political and social division during major national milestones.
“The United States is celebrating our 250th anniversary in what we can all agree are very partisan times,” said Deaton. “But we know that all eras have been deeply divided by politics. Elizabeth Varon and Will Hitchcock are two outstanding scholars who will help us understand how earlier generations navigated the Centennial and Bicentennial and what we can learn from those who walked this difficult ground before us.”
Dr. Hitchcock is the James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia and a leading scholar of modern American and European history. Dr. Varon is Professor of History and Associate Director of the Nau Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia, and an acclaimed author whose work focuses on national identity, political culture, and the Civil War era. She won the Georgia Historical Society’s Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award for her book Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster).
As part of the 2025-2026 Georgia History Festival, this program is made possible in partnership with the UVA Club of Savannah and through the generous support of The Coca-Cola Company.
The event is free and open to the public.
To watch the livestream of the event tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m., please visit www.georgiahistory.com.
For additional details, please visit www.georgiahistoryfestival.org or contact Keith Strigaro, Director of Public Relations and Communications, at 912.651.2125, ext. 153, or by email at kstrigaro@georgiahistory.com.
About William Hitchcock
William I. Hitchcock is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning teacher who has published numerous books relating to World War II, including The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe (Free Press, 2008), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the George Louis Beer Prize from the American Historical Association. He is also the author of The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (Simon & Schuster, 2018). He received his B.A. degree from Kenyon College and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a Fulbright scholar, a fellow of the Nobel Institute in Oslo, the holder of the Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress, and Berlin Prize fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is now the James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
About Elizabeth Varon
Elizabeth R. Varon is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and a member of the executive council of UVA’s John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. She is the author of six books, including Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2019), which won the 2020 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Her most recent book Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023) was reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. The book won the inaugural American Battlefield Trust Prize, the Georgia Historical Society’s Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times biography prize, among other honors. Varon’s current project is a biography of humanitarian Clara Barton.
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ABOUT THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the premier independent statewide institution responsible for collecting, examining, and teaching Georgia and American history. GHS houses the oldest and most distinguished collection of materials related exclusively to Georgia history in the nation.
To learn more visit georgiahistory.com.