Jeff Shaara, award-winning author of nine best-selling novels about American history, will be this year’s distinguished speaker in a Teaching American History event Thurs., March 4 at Moorpark High School’s Performing Arts Center, 4500 Tierra Rejada Road.

Refreshments will be offered at 6 p.m., and Shaara will speak from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

Shaara, who is on the board of trustees for the Civil War Preservation Trust, will make a presentation on his two trilogies, the Civil War and World War II, as well as his methodology and historical fiction writing style.

All of his books will be available for purchase and signing by the author at the conclusion of his talk.

Shaara’s father, Michael Shaara, wrote the Pulitzer Prizewinning “Killer Angels,” on which the 1993 film “Gettysburg” was based. After Michael Shaara’s death, Jeff Shaara wrote a prequel, “Gods and Generals,” which was turned into a feature film.

Shaara’s other books are “The Last Full Measure,” “Gone for Soldiers,” “Rise to Rebellion,” “The Glorious Cause,” “The Rising Tide,” “The Steel Wave,” “No Less Than Victory” and “To the Last Man,” which won the American Library Association’s Boyd Award for excellence in military fiction.

Shaara is researching his fourth volume on WWII, dealing with the final months of the Pacific Theater.

For more information, e-mail the TAH directors, Larry Jones at ljones@mrpk.org or Angela Ryals at aryals@mrpk.org.

TAH is a federally funded program through which six school districts—Moorpark, Simi Valley, Fillmore, Rio, Ocean View and Pleasant Valley—work in collaboration with the Reagan Library, California Lutheran University and Cal State Northridge to increase understanding of and appreciation for the nation’s history.