Blog
Published: 2/1/13
An Interview with Jill Titus
Our interview with Jill Titus, associate director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Dr. Titus discusses the upcoming Future of Civil War History Conference taking place in...
Published: 1/30/13
Lincoln’s Hundred Days (2012)
“The Halls of Congress are like a dirty privy,” William Porcher Miles noted in 1858—“a man will carry off some of the stink even in his clothes.”1 As depicted in Louis...
Published: 1/25/13
An Interview with Scott Hartwig
Our interview with Scott Hartwig, Supervisory Historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 (The Johns Hopkins University Press,...
Published: 1/23/13
The Civil War in the West (2012)
The Civil War West is quickly becoming all the rage, emerging as the theme of conferences, the focus of panels dedicated to new directions in the field, and even appearing...
Published: 1/23/13
The Gentlemen and the Roughs (2010)
Positing the Union army as northern society in microcosm, Lorien Foote argues for a vibrant culture of honor in the Union ranks. This northern honor operated along a sliding scale—from...
Published: 1/22/13
2012 | The Year in Review
Another year has come and gone and The Civil War Monitor editorial staff is thankful for a very productive 2012. As we begin to make plans for another exciting year,...
Published: 1/18/13
An Interview with Brian Craig Miller
Our conversation with Brian Craig Miller, Assistant Professor of History and Associate Chair of History at Emporia State University and editor of A Punishment on the Nation: An Iowa...
Published: 1/16/13
How We Need to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained”
Alright . . . historians, history buffs, and anyone who cares about history—take a deep breath and repeat after me: “It’s OK to love Lincoln and Django Unchained.” Why? Because they’re excellent—and I...
Published: 1/9/13
The Fire of Freedom (2012)
A difficult scholarly challenge is rescuing from the dustbin of the past persons of historical importance, who for whatever reason have fallen into obscurity. This task is ably handled by...
Published: 1/2/13
Django Unchained (2012)
That Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” is the most effective depiction of American slavery in the recent history of feature films is somewhat surprising and deeply disturbing. The first scenes and...
Published: 12/26/12
A Taste For War (2011)
Historians have long tried to capture the experience of the common soldier ever since Bell Wiley wrote Johnny Reb (1943) and Billy Yank (1952). Since then they have described everything from their views...
Published: 12/18/12
The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory (2012)
Few infantry units in the Federal or Confederate armies match the Iron Brigade in reputation or accomplishment. Distinguishing themselves at the Brawner Farm, on South Mountain, during the Battle of...
Published: 12/12/12
The Great Heart of the Republic (2011)
Adam Arenson’s engaging study of mid-nineteenth-century St. Louis is a story of national potential and national failure. Located at the intersection of North, South, and West, St. Louis requires us...
Published: 12/10/12
Holiday Civil War Trivia Contest: Winner
Trivia Question: A skirmish at this place on October 29, 1862, is widely regarded as the first time black troops in the Union Blue engaged in combat during the Civil War. Correct...
Published: 12/5/12
Faces of the Civil War (2012)
Ron Coddington’s Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories grew out of his interests as a photographer and a collector of Civil War-era cartes de visite....
Published: 11/28/12
Lincoln (2012) [Take 2]
Movies can negatively shape popular perceptions of history. Birth of a Nation (1915) helped lead to the revival of the Klan. Gone with the Wind (1939) still shapes many peoples’ comprehensions of slavery. The...
Published: 11/26/12
“Not Since the Days of William the Conqueror” – Anti-War Democrats of Ohio in their Own Words
For me, one of the great joys of researching and writing about Civil War history is “reading other people’s mail.” Whether in archives, digitized sources online, or in books, reading...
Published: 11/21/12
Lincoln and the Election of 1860 (2011)
This volume, part of a series entitled “The Concise Lincoln Library,” focuses on Abraham Lincoln’s role in the momentous events of 1860—the Republican presidential nomination in May, and his subsequent...