The Reconstruction Era

Most Americans have at least heard of Ireland’s “Potato Famine” during which one million died of hunger and related diseases and another million fled Ireland for the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, and Continental Europe in one of the most massive depopulations in European history. The Famine lasted from 1845 until 1852. Over the years from 1852 to 1855, ...

Congress has been holding hearings this week on the proposed budget for the National Park Service (NPS). As you likely know, last year the Administration halted hiring to replace departing staff and encouraged early retirement that led Park Rangers, historians, archeologists to leave the Service. There were also staff without seniority who were fired. If you think that the cu...

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Histor...

The University of Virginia announced this week that Professor Michael Vorenberg of Brown University has won the 2026 John L. Nau III Book Prize in American Civil War Era History for his new book, “Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War” (Knopf, 2025). The panel that reviewed the book included John Rodrigue, Sarah Handley-Cousins, and Kevi...

I was looking at Kevin Levin’s site Civil War Memory yesterday and an article popped up in which the Speaker of the Alabama House was caught on video saying that he hopes “the Supreme Court will overturn Amendment 14.” The Speaker, Representative Nathan Ledbetter, was talking about redistricting that would deprive a Black majority district of its ability to elect a Black asse...