Two distinguished American historians, Rod Gragg and Kenneth Townsend, will read from their new books in Coastal Carolina University's Wall Auditorium on Thursday, Dec. 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Gragg will read from his Covered with Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, and Townsend will read from his World War II and the American Indian.

"Rod Gragg has established himself in the front ranks of America's leading Civil War historians," says Charles Joyner, Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal.

His Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher won the Civil War Round Table's Fletcher Pratt Award as best Civil War book of the year. His Illustrated Confederate Reader earned the Douglass Southall Freeman Award for history and his Civil War Quiz and Fact Book and Old West Quiz and Fact Books were best-sellers. All were published by Harper Collins. Gragg and his family are long-time residents of Conway.

Townsend, associate professor of history at Coastal, specializes in 20th century American history. Joyner describes World War II and the American Indian as "a pioneering study of the 25,000 Native Americans who served their country in World War II, their effect on the war and the war's effect on them." The book was published by the University of New Mexico Press.

Joyner adds that "Covered with Glory and World War II and the American Indian are important books, not only for what they have to say, but for the graceful way they say it. They are pleasures to read for historians and general readers alike."

The readings will be followed by refreshments and an autograph reception. The event is sponsored by the Waccamaw Center for Cultural and Historical Studies.

For more information, contact Coastal's Office of Marketing Communications at 349-2015.