Afew months ago I reported that Mississippi State University is slated to become the new home to the Ulysses S. Grant Papers after 50 years at Southern Illinois University under the direction of John Y. Simon. Simon’s recent death raised the question of who would continue the massive project of publishing Grant’s papers until historian [...]
Southern History
I always get a kick out of the people who find my blogging to be offensive based on the fact that I am not native to the South. A couple of days ago I noticed a comment on another blog, which referred to me as “Kevin the Carpetbagger”. Of course, I am not offended by [...]
Tomorrow I am taking 32 students and three colleagues to Richmond to tour Civil War related sites. Since the courses that I am teaching this trimester are focused on memory we are going to spend time exploring various statues that offer case studies on how different groups, and at different times, chose to remember the [...]
I posted this back in March 2006, but decided to showcase it since my Civil War Memory classes will be meeting today to discuss James McPherson’s essay on the UDC and their efforts to control and shape the content of history textbooks at the beginning of the twentieth century. The article is titled, “Long-Legged Yankee [...]
It’s nice to see the Museum of the Confederacy taking advantage of YouTube as a form of outreach. A few months ago they started a series of short videos on various subjects that feature their talented staff as well as the museum’s extensive collection of artifacts. This video focuses on Turner Ashby and includes interviews [...]
I am doing quite a bit of reading over this holiday break. One of the books I am making my way through is Capitol Men by Philip Dray. The book tells the story of the principal black leaders in Congress during Reconstruction. It’s well written and does a thorough job of explaining both the backgrounds [...]