In recognition of the sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War, the Boston Book Festival brought together several distinguished authors for a discussion at this year's event on October 15: Adam Goodheart, 1861: The Civil War Awakening; Tony Horwitz, Midnight Rising: John Brown's Raid and the Start of the Civil War; Charles Bracelen Flood, Grant's Final Victory and several others; and, Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering. The session was moderated by Annette Gordon-Reed, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello and Andrew Johnson.

The video runs just under an hour and half.