Today’s Muster continues our series Teaching the Civil War. Each post in the series has examined a different method that college and K-12 teachers have used to make the Civil War era come alive in the classroom. In Todays ‘s post, University of South Dakota professor Lindsey Peterson explores teaching the history of emancipation through the Civil War & … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The Civil War and Reconstruction transformed immigration policy in the United States, marking the transition from a sub-national to a national policy for regulating the admission, exclusion, and removal of foreigners. Before that turning point, Congress played almost no role in regulating immigration, other than naturalization policy (for white people) and passenger acts setting conditions … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
Recent events have turned public attention to the previously obscure Militia Act of 1903 and the even more obscure historians and political scientists interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century insurrection law. President Donald Trump claimed that the measure vests him with the power to federalize members of the California National Guard to curb what he claims is a rebellion by persons protesting U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement activities in Los Angeles or an uprising that is pre...| The Journal of the Civil War Era
Recent events have turned public attention to the previously obscure Militia Act of 1903 and the even more obscure historians and political scientists interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century insurrection law. President Donald Trump claimed that the measure vests him with the power to federalize members of the California National Guard to curb what he claims … Read More Read More The post The Militia Act of 1903 in Historical Context appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era.| The Journal of the Civil War Era
In today’s Muster, Associate Editor Robert Bland discusses the JCWE’s June special issue on material culture with guest editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts. Dr. Cashin is a professor of history at Ohio State University and author of War Stuff: The Struggle for Human and Environmental Resources in the American Civil War (2018) … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
In today’s Muster, associate editor Robert Bland is joined by Andrew Donnelly to discuss his new book Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion, and Reunion in the Civil War Era. Professor Donnelly is an assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts … Read More Read More The post Andrew Donnelly, Confederate Sympathies, and the History of Same-Sex Romance during the Civil War Er...| The Journal of the Civil War Era
Today’s Muster features an interview with Michael Allen, a retired National Park Service official. Over the course of his nearly four decade career, Allen has played a pivotal role in how several Civil War Era sites have reshaped their interpretative vision of the past. More recently, he has played a critical role in the creation … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The $50,000 Tom Watson Brown Book Award is presented annually by the Watson-Brown Foundation and the Society of Civil War Historians to the author or authors of the best book “on the causes, conduct, and effects, broadly defined, of the Civil War,” published in the preceding year. Each year Tad Brown, president of the Watson-Brown … Read More Read More The post 2025 Tom Watson Brown Book Award appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era.| The Journal of the Civil War Era
In today’s Muster, JCWE Book Review Editor Megan Bever is joined by Jill L. Newmark, independent historian and former Curator and Exhibition Specialist at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Newmark is the author of Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons (Southern Illinois University Press, 2023), … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The Latin American Studies Association recently awarded both Bianca Dang and Christina C. Davidson with their 2025 Best Article Prize. Dr. Dang and Dr. Davidson were honored for their respective contributions to the JCWE’s 2025 special issue on Black internationalism, which was edited by Brandon R. Byrd. You may read Bianca Dang’s article, “‘I Don’t … Read More Read More The post Congratulations to Bianca Dang and Christina C. Davidson appeared first on The Journal of the Civil ...| The Journal of the Civil War Era
In today’s Muster, associate editor Robert D. Bland speaks with Lindsey R. Peterson about her March 2025 JCWE article “‘Home-Builders’: Free Labor Households and Settler Colonialism in Western Union Civil War Commemorations.” This article, which won the 2023 Anthony Kaye Memorial Essay Award, examines the regional effort to connect the legacy of the Civil War to settlement … Read More Read More The post Lindsey Peterson Interview on “‘Home Builders’: Free Labor Households ...| The Journal of the Civil War Era
“How I hate the whole thing,” wrote a decidedly unhappy new recruit to the Sixth Wisconsin late in 1864, “from beginning to end.”[1] That was Joshua B. Ingalls, a Richfield County blacksmith in his late thirties with a wife and six children. He had managed to avoid earlier drafts, but his name was finally called … Read More Read More The post Alternative Histories: Integrating Drafted Men into the Military Narrative appeared first on The Journal of the Civil War Era.| The Journal of the Civil War Era
In today’s Muster, JCWE associate editor Robert Bland interviews Melissa DeVelvis, author of Gendering Secession: White Women in the Politics of South Carolina, 1859 to 1861 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2025). Gender Secession explores the lives and politics of South Carolina’s elite white women during the end of the antebellum period and the months … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The Society of Civil War Historians and the Journal of the Civil War Era invite submissions from early career scholars (doctoral candidates at the writing stage and PhDs not more than two years removed from having earned their degree) for the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award. Papers on any topic concerning the history of the Civil … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The Richards Center at Penn State and the Journal of the Civil War Era (JCWE) are excited to announce a journal article workshop for advanced graduate students, recent Phds, assistant professors, and independent scholars. The deadline for applying is April 1, 2025. Completed applications should be emailed to RichardsCenter@psu.edu . See the image and link … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
Today’s Muster features an interview with Dr. Bennett Parten, author of the recently released Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation. Dr. Parton is an assistant professor of history at Georgia Southern University. A native of Royston, Georgia, Parton’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
This post is the second in a new Muster series that will highlight innovative ways that classroom instructors have approached teaching the Civil War era. Today’s post is written by Professor Ian Delahanty and offers a creative approach for introducing students to Civil War-era history through a place-based learning experience in Boston For most … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
Toward the end of his first term President Ulysses S. Grant faced a dilemma. He had campaigned on the slogan “Let Us Have Peace,” yet extralegal violence by the Ku Klux Klan was threatening peace in the South. On April 20, 1871, Congress passed the Ku-Klux Act to combat that threat. It gave the president … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
The September 2024 issue continues to demonstrate the vitality and creativity of the fields that touch on the Civil War era and the vibrant discussion of methods, sources, and arguments that shape its future. There are reasons for concern—or even gloom—about aspects of the broader culture, including attacks on teaching good history at all levels … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
We grieve the sudden death of our dear friend and distinguished historian, Peter S. Carmichael. As nearly everyone in the SCWH knows, Pete brought a rare invigorating spark to everything he touched. Those lucky enough to interact with him encountered historical insights, probing questions, and his profane and hilarious sense of humor. In preparing this … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
This issue demonstrates the ongoing methodological breadth of the Civil War Era, as scholars bring numerous different ways of approaching history to reckon with the turbulent mid-nineteenth century in all its facets. This issue includes one research article, a book award talk, a roundtable, and a historiographic review essay, along with the sterling book reviews … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
While pondering the future of digital history, historian Edward L. Ayers argues the field should not only replicate archives and build new tools. It must also feature interpretation, explanation, and explication, and when it accomplishes these things, it can contribute original knowledge and perform a democratic service in meaningful and enduring ways.[1]Digital history, therefore, presents … Read More Read More| The Journal of the Civil War Era
