Talk Explores First Thanksgiving Lessons

Tracy McKenzie, professor of history at Wheaton College, examines how Americans remember their national heritage on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge at Kerrwood Hall.

The Erasmus Society Lecture, “Remembering the First Thanksgiving: How to Learn from the Pilgrims Without Using and Abusing Them,” is free and open to the public.

McKenzie’s most recent book, “The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us about Loving God and Learning From History,” challenges Christians and other to humbly explore the functions of myth and history in constructing a useful past.

“‘The First Thanksgiving’ is a wonderful read that not only greatly enhances our understanding of those early events in New England but points us toward how we might fruitfully learn from this group of forbearers,” says Richard Pointer, Westmont professor of history, “and I anticipate that his lecture will do the same.”

For most of his professional career, McKenzie’s research focused on the effects of the American Civil War on the economy and society of the Upper South. His first book, “One South or Many? Plantation Belt and Upcountry in Civil War-Era Tennessee,” investigated the economic effects of war and emancipation on the southern countryside, and received best-book awards from the Agricultural History Society and the American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch. He also wrote “Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War,” which won the annual Fletcher Pratt Literary Award for best non-fiction work on the Civil War.

McKenzie, a graduate of the University of Tennessee, earned a Master of Arts and doctorate from Vanderbilt University.