Edward Ayers is President of the University of Richmond. Prior to holding this position he was the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he had taught since 1980. He has won several teaching awards, including the National Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2003. Ayers has written and edited ten books. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (1992) was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies, War in the Heart of America 1859-1863 won the 2003 Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. In June 2005, What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on the South and Southern History, was published by W.W. Norton, followed by, The Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration, edited, with Gary Gallagher and Andrew Torget, by the University of Virginia Press, in September, 2006. Ayers is the creator of “The Valley of the Shadow Project: Two Communities in the American Civil War,” the recipient of awards for the best aid to the teaching of history from the American Historical Association and the eLincoln Prize for the best digital resources on the era of the American Civil War. Ayers received a presidential appointment to the National Council on the Humanities, has served as a Fulbright professor in the Netherlands, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science.
Professor Ayers was interviewed regarding his book What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on the South and Southern History.