Growing up in South Carolina, it was hard for Marion Lucas to avoid the shadow of the Civil War. In college at the University of South Carolina, Lucas met a professor from New York who taught a class on the subject. He had a position on the Civil War that I had never heard, Lucas said. While studying for a Ph.D., Lucas found out the Southern view that he had grown up with wasnt as accurate as he thought. Lucas now teaches history at Western Kentucky University, including a class on the Civil War and Reconstruction. One of his biggest influences was a high school teacher, Dorothy McSwain. She encouraged me and was a major reason why I got into history, Lucas said. South Carolina is immersed in history from the Revolutionary War up until Reconstruction. History for the state kind of stops there, Lucas said. Since the end of the Civil War, the causes have been debated. Shortly after the war, slavery was the main reason cited for the conflict. In the 1880s, Southerners said that if the North had left them alone, they would have ended slavery. But, Lucas said the South was less and less willing to end the practice through the 1800s.They were always asking for more time, but they became more convinced that slavery was OK, Lucas said. In 1860, you cant find any Southerner who wants to end slavery. Students have had their own views on reasons for the Civil War, Lucas said. In the 1980s, students said it was about economics. In the 90s, states rights emerged as a reason. Today, historians and students have come back around to slavery as the major cause, Lucas said. Lucas said Ira Berlins book Many Thousand Gone has some good ideas about slavery and the effect on the United States. Until America admits slavery existed, we will never be able to solve the race problem, the book says. Lucas said slavery is a blot on our record, an aberration that wasnt our fault. The truth is we werent the land of the free and the home of the brave, Lucas said. Historians have faced accepted that slavery caused the Civil War. I think the public has yet to accept it, Lucas said. Lucas is working on his third book, a biography of John G. Fee. Fee was a Kentucky abolitionist in the 1800s who founded Berea College. Ive been working on him for eight years, Lucas said. The book is due in March, but Lucas said he needs some more time. Thats a long project Ive been working on, he said. The second edition of his book, A History of Blacks in Kentucky, will be out this spring. It took 10 years for the first printing to sell out. Lucas said he made about $200 on the book. His first book, Sherman and the Burning of Columbia, is in its third printing after being published in 1976. Hes made about $2,000 on it. Books were writing are typically not that popular, Lucas said. They generally sell out, but even when they sell, you dont make much money. Lucas began teaching at Morehead State University in 1964 and moved to Western in 1966.I think weve got the best history department in the state, Lucas said. Its a department that does more with less money, he said. Lucas said he enjoys the teaching just as much as the research his job requires. When he first began teaching he spent more time getting ready for his classes. Everybody has to work out their own method of teaching, he said. I really think people teach the way they were taught. Lucas said he borrowed from the professors he liked when he was going through school. He uses the chalkboards in Cherry Hall during his classes so his students have a chance to take notes. It can be done another way, but I think the chalkboard is the best way for me, he said.