Tuesday, November 19, 2013

[247] Video tells more about new MTSU book featuring farm families’ Civil War stories



MURFREESBORO — You can learn more about a new limited-edition book, "Plowshares and Swords: Tennessee Farm Families Tell Civil War Stories," published by MTSU's Center for Historic Preservation, direct from one of the authors.

Caneta S. Hankins, who coauthored “Plowshares and Swords” with her late CHP colleague Michael Thomas Gavin, spoke about the project recently at the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. MTSU’s Mike Browning captured a portion of her talk in a video available now at http://youtu.be/XLF3hHitJaY.

Hankins and Gavin cover the entire state in the new hardcover volume, using the lives of individual farm families to tell about war, the homefront, military occupation and emancipation.

"Plowshares and Swords,” which is being released as part of the Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations, includes more than 100 images of Tennessee farms and farm families, many of which have never been published before.

Hankins directed the Tennessee Century Farms program from 2002 to 2013 and recently retired as the assistant director of the Center for Historic Preservation after a career of more than 35 years. Gavin, who passed away earlier this year, was the preservation specialist for the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area from 2002 to 2013. Hankins and Gavin also collaborated on “Barns of Tennessee,” published in 2008.

“Plowshares and Swords” costs $55, shipping included, and can be ordered with a check or money order made payable to the Center for Historic Preservation, Attention: Civil War Book, P.O. Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the MTSU Foundation to support the work of the Center for Historic Preservation across Tennessee.

You can read a more complete story about the new book at http://mtsunews.com/new-historic-preservation-book-farm-families. For more information, please contact the Center for Historic Preservation at 615-898-2947 or email histpres@mtsu.edu.

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