Researching America's defining moment

Purdue University history professor Caroline E. Janney, who has a particular focus on Reconstruction,  on Thursday becomes the president of the Society of Civil War Historians, a national group of scholars, researchers and docents of historic sites that focus on 1830 through 1880. “It’s kind of fitting that I’m starting my term now because my interest has been the postwar years,” she tells Gannett. “What has always intrigued me is the way the war is very much present in our lives 150 years later.” Janney intends to lead the effort to make the society’s webpages more interactive and user-friendly. • Article