UWA hosting book talk

LIVINGSTON –  Dr. G. Ward Hubbs will share excerpts from Searching for Freedom after the Civil War at the University of West Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Library Oct. 27 from 2-4 p.m.

The public is invited to attend this free event. A wine and cheese reception will follow the reading, and Hubbs will sign copies of his works. 

In the book, Hubbs uses a stark political cartoon to illustrate postwar conflicts of the meaning of freedom in the American South. Using an approach that interprets the same events through four points of view, Hubbs unpacks numerous layers of meaning behind this two-dimensional image.

The four men associated with the cartoon—Ryland Randolph, Rev. Arad S. Lakin, Dr. Noah B. Cloud, and Shandy Jones—were archetypes of those who were seeking to rebuild a South shattered by war. Hubbs explores these broad archetypes but also delves deeply into the four men’s life stories, writings, speeches, and decisions in order to recreate each one’s complex worldview and quest to live freely. Their lives, but especially their four very different understandings of freedom, help to explain many of the conflicts of the 1860s.

Hubbs received high acclaim this year for Tuscaloosa: 200 Years in the Making  (University of Alabama Press, 2019), which, in both its subject and its approach, is an account unlike any other of a city unlike any other.

Hubbs is a featured author on Read Alabama 200, a list of authors of recently published books offering new information and insight in the Alabama history and culture. Read Alabama 200 is part of ALABAMA 200, a three-year celebration of the state, guided by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission.

Hubbs is professor emeritus at Birmingham-Southern College and archivist for the north Alabama Methodists.