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Confederacy

The Author’s Corner with Victoria E. Ott

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 20, 2023

Victoria E. Ott is James A. Wood Professor of American History and the coordinator of Gender and Women’s Studies at Birmingham-Southern College. This interview is based on her new book, The Failure of Our Fathers: Family, Gender, and Power in...

The Author’s Corner with John Rodrigue

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 23, 2022

John Rodrigue is Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor in the Department of History at Stonehill College. This interview is based on his new book, Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Cambridge...

The A.P. Hill statue near Richmond comes down

John Fea   |  December 14, 2022

The statue of the Confederate general was Richmond’s last city-owned Confederate statue. Here is a taste of Paul Waldman’s piece at The Washington Post: The Lost Cause is dying with a whimper. For that, thank the committed activists who made...

Confederates at Gettysburg

John Fea   |  November 21, 2022

I was going to take some students in my Civil War America course to Gettysburg this weekend. They were excited about going to the cemetery and reading the Gettysburg Address on November 19, the day it was delivered by Lincoln...

The Author’s Corner with William A. Link

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 15, 2022

William A. Link is Richard J. Milbauer Chair in Southern History Emeritus at the University of Florida. This interview is based on his new book, The Last Fire-Eater: Roger A. Pryor and the Search for a Southern Identity (LSU Press,...

What do Americans think about Confederate flags and monuments?

John Fea   |  October 4, 2022

Public Religion Research Institute just released a very revealing study about Confederate flag and Confederate monuments in America. You can read the entire report here. Here are a few of the findings that caught my attention: 72% of Americans believe...

Removing the last vestiges of the Confederacy from the U.S. military will come with a price tag of $62 million

John Fea   |  September 14, 2022

Will that also include removing Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and former army colonel Doug Mastriano’s Confederate uniform? 🙂 Here is Alex Horton at The Washington Post; Removing the last vestiges of Confederate history from the U.S. military, including renaming nine Army posts,...

Doug Mastriano to a guy wearing a half-American, half-Confederate flag: “I can’t think of a better cape”

John Fea   |  August 30, 2022

On July 4, 2020 Pennsylvania state senator–now GOP gubernatorial candidate–Doug Mastriano did a livestream at the Robert E. Lee monument on the Gettysburg battlefield. I will let Eric Hananoki of Media Matters take it from here: In one of his...

Pennsylvania Doug Mastriano posed in a Confederate uniform

John Fea   |  August 27, 2022

Doug Mastriano is running for governor of Pennsylvania. In 2014 he had the option to pose for a picture dressed in historical attire. He chose to pose in a Confederate uniform. Even the Army seems embarrassed by the photo. Let’s...

The Author’s Corner with Brad R. Clampitt

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 15, 2022

Brad R. Clampitt is Professor of History at East Central University. This interview is based on his new book, Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity (LSU Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Lost Causes?...

The Author’s Corner with Anna Koivusalo

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 1, 2022

Anna Koivusalo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Philosophy, History and Art Studies at the University of Helsinki. This interview is based on her new book, The Man Who Started the Civil War: James Chesnut, Honor, and Emotion...

Congressional committee recommends new names for nine Army bases named after Confederates

John Fea   |  May 25, 2022

Here is Helene Cooper at The New York Times: A Black sergeant who battled German soldiers during World War I. The Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. A woman who served as an Army surgeon during the Civil War. A commission...

The Author’s Corner with Angela Esco Elder

Rachel Petroziello   |  May 17, 2022

Angela Esco Elder is Associate Professor of History at Converse University. This interview is based on her new book, Love and Duty: Confederate Widows and the Emotional Politics of Loss (The University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led...

Who was Jim Limber and what was his connection to the Confederate Lost Cause?

John Fea   |  April 11, 2022

Here is Sydney Trent at The Washington Post: The little Black boy in the Civil War-era photograph stands atop a gilded chair, grasping its tall back with his small fist. His clothing is quotidian — striped pants and a matching...

The Author’s Corner with John Sacher

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 16, 2021

John Sacher is Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida. This interview is based on his new book, Confederate Conscriptions and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers (LSU Press, 2021). JF: What led you to â€‹write Confederate Conscription and...

The bones of Sullivan Ballou

John Fea   |  November 24, 2021

If you have watched the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War you might remember Sullivan Ballou. The Union officer stole the show with the letter he wrote to his wife Sarah a week before he was killed at the First...

The Author’s Corner with Fay Yarbrough

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 4, 2021

Fay Yarbrough is Professor of American History at Rice University. This interview is based on her new book, Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Choctaw Confederates?...

Allen Guelzo on how to tell the story of Robert E. Lee

John Fea   |  September 27, 2021

One of our generation’s best historians of the Civil War is the author of the forthcoming Robert E. Lee: A Life. In a recent piece at The New York Times, Allen Guelzo writes about the challenges of writing a biography...

Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument will come down tomorrow

John Fea   |  September 7, 2021

Here is the Associated Press: A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, will be taken down on Wednesday as a symbol of racial injustice, more than 130 years after it was erected in tribute to...

House of Representatives votes to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol

John Fea   |  June 30, 2021

For some historical context on Confederate monuments check out our interview with Karen L. Cox in the latest episode of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. The vote was 285 to 120. This means that 120 Republicans wanted to...

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