Dr. Edward L. Ayers, University Professor and President Emeritus at the University of Richmond, discusses his new book, The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America, published recently by W.W. Norton. The book conveys the final years of the Civil War in the Great Valley between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains by focusing on average, resilient people trying to survive the devastation around them.