The Whirlwind of War: Voices of the Storm, 1861-1865

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Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War

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Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army

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The Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861

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Lincoln's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24 - April 8, 1865

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American General: The Life and Times of William Tecumseh Sherman

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The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby

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Lincoln's Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War

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If The South Had Won The Civil War

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The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War

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Old Abe: A Novel

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April 1945: The Hinge of History

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The Union War

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The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

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Three Years in the Federal Cavalry

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A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

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Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life

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Surrender at Appomattox: First-hand Accounts of Robert E. Lee's Surrender to Ulysses S. Grant

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Life in the Confederate Army

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With Grant at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg

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The Long Surrender

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1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History

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The Heart of Hell: The Soldiers' Struggle for Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle

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Lost Soul: A Confederate Soldier In New England

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Iconoclastic Memories of the Civil War

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Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea

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A House Reunited: How America Survived the Civil War

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Long Time Gone: Neighbors Divided by Civil Way

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The Secession of the South: The History of the Confederacy’s Establishment Before the Civil War

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Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy

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Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865: Unabridged

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Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance

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The Earth Remains: A Novel

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Night Wherever We Go: A Novel

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Marmee: A Novel

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The Third Mrs. Galway

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Gone With The Wind

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Flags on the Bayou: A Novel

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A Dangerous Beauty

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The Thread Collectors: A Novel

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The American Queen: A Novel Based on the True Story of Appalachia’s Kingdom of the Happy Land

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Carolina Built

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The Smallest Man

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Seduced

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Varina: A Novel

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What Passes as Love: A Novel

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The Color of Lightning

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When the Jessamine Grows

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The Last of What I Am

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The First Lady and the Rebel: A Novel

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Mr. Darcy's Mail-Order Bride: A Pride & Prejudice Variation

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Bring the Jubilee

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Things Past Telling: A Novel

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I am Ayah: The Way Home

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Without Warning: The Saga of Gettysburg, A Reluctant Union Hero, and the Men He Inspired

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Saltwater and Driftwood: A Historical Novel

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The Cotillion Brigade: A Novel of the Civil War and the Most Famous Female Militia in American History

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Short Stories About The American Civil War: Stories about life as a soldier, love in a time of war, horrors of battle & more

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Blood: Stories of Life and Death From The Civil War

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You, Me, and Ulysses S. Grant: A Farcical Biography

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The Outer Banks House: A Novel

Podcast episode

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: In April 1942, sixteen American B-25B bombers took off from the carrier USS Hornet and conducted a bombing raid over Japan that is known to posterity as the Doolittle Raid. After bombing Japan, the pilots’ intent was to land their planes in China…but...

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Lecture 25 - The "End" of Reconstruction: Disputed Election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877": This lecture focuses on the role of white southern terrorist violence in brining about the end of Reconstruction. Professor Blight begins with an account the Colfax Massacre. Colfax, Louisiana was the sight of the largest mass murder in U.S. history, when a white mob killed dozens of African Americans in the April of 1873. Two Supreme Court decisions would do in the judicial realm what the Colfax Massacre had done in the political. On the same day as the Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court offered a narrow reading of the 14th Amendment in the Slaughterhouse cases, signaling a judicial retreat from the radicalism of the early Reconstruction years. The Cruikshank case, two years later, would overturn the convictions of the only three men sentenced for their involvement in Colfax, and marked another step away from reconstruction. Professor Blight concludes with the Panic of 1873 and the seemi

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Lecture 23 - Black Reconstruction in the South: The Freedpeople and the Economics of Land and Labor: Professor Blight begins this lecture in Washington, where the passage of the first Reconstruction Act by Congressional Republicans radically altered the direction of Reconstruction. The Act invalidated the reconstituted Southern legislatures, establishing five military districts in the South and insisting upon black suffrage as a condition to readmission. The eventful year 1868 saw the impeachment of one president (Andrew Johnson) and the election of another (Ulysses S. Grant). Meanwhile, southern African Americans struggle to reap the promises of freedom in the face of economic disempowerment and a committed campaign of white supremacist violence. Transcript Lecture Page

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#50 CONTRABANDS / BIG BETHEL: In which we discuss the decision to declare runaway slaves "contraband of war," and then we look at the Battle of Big Bethel which took place on June 10, 1861.

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503a The Nez Perce War; American Nomads

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The Civil War and Its Monuments: What was the civil war about? How ought we remember it? What about Confederate monuments and statues? www.virtueinthewasteland.com 

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#51 GONE FOR A SOLDIER: In which we look at why Northern & Southern men signed up to fight at the beginning of the Civil War.

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Lecture 17 - Homefronts and Battlefronts: "Hard War" and the Social Impact of the Civil War: Professor Blight begins his lecture with a description of the sea change in Civil War scholarship heralded by the Social History revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Along with a focus on the experience of the common solider, women, and African Americans, a central component of this shift in scholarly emphasis was an increased interest in the effects of the war on the Union and Confederate home fronts. After suggesting some of the ways in which individual Americans experienced the war, Professor Blight moves to a discussion of the war's effect on industry and economics, North and South. The lecture concludes with a description of the increased activism of the federal government during the war, an activism that found expression in finance, agriculture, taxation, building railroads, and, most importantly, in emancipation. Transcript Lecture Page

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DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK: THE HOUNDS OF HELL UNLEASHED: 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries

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A Deep Dive into The Emancipation Proclamation and The Causes Behind the Civil War - Listener Questions: What was the true function of the Proclamation and the context surrounding it?  How did people react at this time?  Was slavery the true cause of the Civil War, and should North and South fit into liberal and conservative boxes.  Could...

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75: Reconstruction (Part 3): The Rise of the KKK and the First Black Men in Government

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#32 LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION: In which we look at Abraham Lincoln's inaugural journey from Illinois to Washington, D.C. and then his inauguration as the sixteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1861. 

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Lecture 3 - A Southern World View: The Old South and Proslavery Ideology: Professor Blight lectures on southern slavery. He makes a case for viewing the U.S. South as one of the five true "slave societies" in world history. He discusses the internal slave trade that moved thousands of slaves from the eastern seaboard to the cotton states of the Southwest between 1820 and 1860. Professor Blight then sketches the contents of the pro-slavery argument, including its biblical, historical, economic, cynical, and utopian aspects. Transcript Lecture Page

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#317- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Third): "the devil's to pay"

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Lecture 14 - Never Call Retreat: Military and Political Turning Points in 1863: Professor Blight lectures on the military history of the early part of the war. Beginning with events in the West, Blight describes the Union victories at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, introduces Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and narrates the horrific battle of Shiloh, fought in April of 1862. Moving back East, the lecture describes the Union General George McClellan's abortive 1862 Peninsula campaign, which introduced the world to Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The lecture concludes with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's decision to take the battle to the North. Transcript Lecture Page

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Ep. 6: BGen Frederick Castle, USAAF, B-17 Flying Fortress pilot, 8th Air Force, World War 2

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16: The Founding Fractures: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson

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#49 ARTILLERY: In which we cover the third Civil War combat arm: the artillery.

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Lecture 10 - The Election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis: This lecture picks off where the previous one left off, with a discussion of the legacies of John Brown. The most important thing about John Brown's raid, Professor Blight argues, was not the event itself, but the way Americans engaged with it after the fact. Next, Professor Blight discusses the election of 1860, a four-way battle won by the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln. In the wake of Lincoln's election, the seven states of the deep South, led by South Carolina, seceded. The lecture closes with an analysis of some of the rationales underlying southern secession. Transcript Lecture Page

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Lecture 15 - Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy: Professor Blight follows Robert E. Lee's army north into Maryland during the summer of 1862, an invasion that culminated in the Battle of Antietam, fought in September of 1862. In the wake of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, a document that changed the meaning of the war forever. Professor Blight suggests some of the ways in which Americans have attempted to come to grips with the enigmatic Lincoln, and argues that, in the end, it may be Lincoln's capacity for change that was his most important characteristic. The lecture concludes with the story of John Washington, a Virginia slave whose concerted action suggests the central role American slaves played in securing their own freedom. Transcript Lecture Page

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TOM HORN Ep. 3 | “The Johnson County War”

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Gallipoli: James and Sean discuss the 1981 Australian film Gallipoli, which tells the story of a group of Australian young men who are introduced to the horrors of war at the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli.

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Lincoln on Infrastructure: Known in history for his role in ending slavery and prosecuting the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's most important issue in his time as an elected official was infrastructure. And in that, he was little different than his pioneer constituents. In this episode, we talk about Lincoln's roots, his arguments countering objections to improvement projects (that have relevance today), and how it shaped slavery and other political issues of his time.

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Battle of Austerlitz: Napoleon's Greatest Victory: 2 December is a special date for those fascinated by Napoleon Bonaparte. Not only is this the date he crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804, but also the date of his greatest victory a year later, the Battle of Austerlitz. James Rogers is joined by...

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Lecture 1 - Introductions: Why Does the Civil War Era Have a Hold on American Historical Imagination?: Professor Blight offers an introduction to the course. He summarizes some of the course readings, and discusses the organization of the course. Professor Blight offers some thoughts on the nature of history and the study of history, before moving into a discussion of the reasons for Americans' enduring fascination with the Civil War. The reasons include: the human passion for epics, Americans' fondness for redemption narratives, the Civil War as a moment of "racial reckoning," the fascination with loss and lost causes, interest in military history, and the search for the origins of the modern United States. Transcript Lecture Page

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68: Sherman's March to the Sea and the Thirteenth Amendment

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Lecture 22 - Constitutional Crisis and Impeachment of a President: Professor Blight continues his discussion of the political history of Reconstruction. The central figure in the early phase of Reconstruction was President Andrew Johnson. Under Johnson's stewardship, southern whites held constitutional conventions throughout 1865, drafting new constitutions that outlawed slavery but changed little else. When the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress reassembled late in 1865, they put a stop to Johnson's leniency and inaugurated Radical (or Congressional) Reconstruction, a process that resulted in the immediate passage of the Civil Rights bill and the Fourteenth Amendment, and the eventual passage of four Reconstruction Acts. The Congressional elections in 1866 and Johnson's disastrous "Swing Around the Circle" speaking tour strengthened Radical control over Congress. Each step of the way, Johnson did everything he could to obstruct Congressional Reconstruction, setting the stage for his i

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S1 Ep. 2: The Defeat of Wright Patman: The first Watergate hearings didn't go so well.

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Lecture 21 - Andrew Johnson and the Radicals: A Contest over the Meaning of Reconstruction: In this lecture, Professor Blight begins his engagement with Reconstruction. Reconstruction, Blight suggests, might best be understood as an extended referendum on the meaning of the Civil War. Even before the war's end, various constituencies in the North attempted to control the shape of the post-war Reconstruction of the South. In late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln offered his lenient "Ten Percent Plan." Six months later, Congressional Republicans concerned by Lincoln's charity rallied behind the more radical provisions of the Wade-Davis Bill. Despite their struggle for control over Reconstruction, Congressional Radicals and President Lincoln managed to work together on two vital pieces of Reconstruction legislation in the first months of 1865--the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the United States, and the Freedmen's Bureau bill. Transcript Lecture Page

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Episode 85 - John Wilkes Booth: A Discussion With 'The Art Of Crime': A discussion with Gavin Whitehead on the assassination of Lincoln and more