In the wake of the Civil War, many veterans struggled with lingering pain, disabling illnesses, and trauma. Old soldiers often turned to opioids to cope, and thousands became addicted to opium and morphine. Jonathan S. Jones, Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University, will discuss his new book “Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis”. It investigates how the Civil War sparked an opioid epidemic among veterans, how addiction affected their lives, and what this crisis can teach us about the war's unexpected aftershocks in the postwar decades.

When an assassin’s bullet struck James Garfield in July 1881, the battle to save the president’s life began. In the weeks that followed, doctors argued over how to treat the stricken executive. In the end, Dr. D. Willard...