The United States is characterized by debates and conflicts that reflect deep societal divisions. Disagreements over racism and (in)justice, over gun control, and over states’ rights and the extent of central government, are all part of the presidential campaign. The parties and candidates are trying to mobilize their voters in a battle not only about ideology, but also about the future of society and the very definition of what it means to be American. Many of these discussions can be understood as actualizations of the traces of the civil war that came close to tearing the nation apart in the 1860’s.

An anthropologist, a historian and a journalist are now launching a new podcast series that connects America's contemporary cultural struggles with the traces of the American Civil War.

"In the podcast, we explore how the American Civil War is connected to today's tensions, which some have labelled a new Civil War," says Mads Daugbjerg and elaborates:

"The podcast is based on a road trip from the US North to the deep South that I went on with historian Mads Thernøe and journalist Susanna Sommer. We seek out the past as something that sits in landscapes, in city centers, or in American bodies."

The podcast’s main language is Danish. However, interview excerpts and talks with interlocutors are kept in English.

Getting close to the past burning today
Listeners will encounter the history buffs who keep the American Civil War alive through huge re-enactments; the old statue sculptor who fights the demolition of Confederate war monuments;  the black activists who keep reenacting a lynching committed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1946; local politicians, park rangers, young students – and many, many others.

"It's a sound journey where the past is not that which happened long ago, but something that is constantly being constructed and contested in the present," says Mads Daugbjerg, who has researched the American Civil War's contemporary traces and reactualisations for years.

The journey starts on September 18 – join us on a 3000-kilometer road trip
Each of the six podcast episodes takes off from a physical location. The first and second episodes will air on September 18, focusing on Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania, the site of the Civil War's most famous battle.

"In the first episode you’ll meet the young museum director who is worried about the state of the nation; the students who have arrived at the city’s college equipped with very different tales of the Civil War; and the local Democratic-Party politician trying to find his way in a Republican-dominated area of Pennsylvania," says Mads Daugbjerg.

Facts about the podcast series "The Echoes of the Civil War":

• The American Civil War was a political and military conflict from 1861 to 1865 between eleven breakaway Southern states and the rest of the United States; it resulted in the abolition of slavery.
• The podcast series "The Echo of the Civil War" is created by Mads Daugbjerg, anthropologist and associate professor at Aarhus University, Mads Thernøe, historian and director at Kroppedal Museum, and Susanna Sommer, independent radio and podcast producer and associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
• The first two episodes will be broadcast on September 18, episodes three and four on September 25, and episodes five and six on October 2.
• The podcast series can be found and streamed from your favorite podcast platform.
• The podcast series is supported by a Carlsberg Mindelegat from the Carlsberg Foundation.

Contact

Mads Daugbjerg, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
School of Culture and Society
Aarhus University
Mobile: +45 2537 7459
Mail: mads.daugbjerg@cas.au.dk