Historians of the American Civil War have authored an impressive and increasingly complex history of the common soldiers who waged the conflict. Explaining soldiers’ motivations to enlist, charting a steadfast commitment to their respective national causes, unfolding their multifaceted views on race and emancipation, and placing citizen-volunteers within their mid-nineteenth-century contexts, the rich scholarship on…

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Charleston this past summer, the shadow of the American Civil War Era hangs over the nation like a heavy cloud. More than a century and a half removed from Appomattox the war has never left the collective national consciousness even in spite of the disparate and conflicting…

As a scholar and teacher of the Civil War era, I am in the midst of contributing to debates surrounding the proper place of military history in academic settings. The field’s professional journals and influential blogs have even launched an intense but necessary conversation on how best to balance military studies alongside cultural and social…

Although it is hardly profound to suggest that graduate education should emphasize strong, clear, and concise writing, it sometimes appears that composition assumes a secondary position behind historiographical analysis and command of existing literature. The most difficult and most fruitful readings course that I took in graduate school had little topical relevance to my own…

As I teach my second graduate readings course, I have realized just how little I prepared for similar courses in grad school. Yes, I “mastered” comps and arrived in daily seminar meetings equipped to discuss books. But it is another matter altogether to prepare and lead an organized, fluid three-hour weekly discussion on books and…

Some of you may remember a session at the 2013 Southern Historical Association Meeting at which a round-table discussion attempted to weigh the utility of centering military history narratives at the heart of Civil War courses. The panelists endeavored to untangle the stereotyped courses that either decry or ignore military history altogether against those that…

I am constantly debating what kinds of sources to assign in my various courses, which ones to include, and, arguably more difficult, which ones to exclude. Yet this sometimes is one of the more enjoyable exercises in teaching. When making course syllabi, I tend to revisit books and articles that, as a graduate student, had…

While the title of my post may suggest contemporary disgust with the political system–really? It is already time for another election cycle?–my intentions today are merely pedagogical. There has been much recent discussion on the utility of exams. Do they truly capture a student’s level of knowledge? Or, do they force a student to cram…

Many of you may remember me from last year. I taught first-year seminars at Rice University, instructing 15 students per class. Such an intimate setting offered both rewards and challenges, many of the latter revolving around just how to teach such a small number of students. I learned much about myself and my teaching style…