Cecily Zander, a Ph.D. candidate in Penn State’s Department of History, recently was interviewed by H-CivWar about her article, “‘Victory’s Long Review’: The Grand Review of Union Armies and the Meaning of the Civil War.” The article was published in the March 2020 issue of Civil War History. It grew out of Zander’s undergraduate honors thesis at the University of Virginia. When she entered the Ph.D. program at Penn State to work under the direction of former Richards Center director Dr. William Blair, he helped shape the thesis into an article. “Victory’s Long Review” analyzes the memory of the Civil War, focusing on the Grand Review of the Union armies in Washington, DC following the war. In the Grand Review and its subsequent re-enactments, Union veterans consistently demonstrated that their preeminent legacy was the preservation of the Union itself. They portrayed the North’s victory in the Civil War as a historic achievement. Zander argues that many Union veterans considered it a victory over history itself, comparing the American republic favorably to Ancient Rome, which ultimately fell victim to invasion and civil wars. You can read the full interview on the H-CivWar site.