Courses at Emporia State University

Fall 2009: History 111 The United States to 1877 online
History 112 The United States Since 1877
History 342 The Early Republic, 1789-1848
History 540/740 Graduate Readings: Civil War America

Spring 2010: History 111 The United States to 1877 online
History 112 The United States Since 1877
History 301 Religion in American History online
History 301 Gay and Lesbian History
History 343 The Civil War Era, 1848-1877

Courses coming in 2010-11: African American History, Political Parties 1789-1896, Ulysses S. Grant, Graduate Readings in Jacksonian America

Publications

• John Bell Hood and the Fight for Civil War Memory, in press with The University of Tennessee Press, releases March 2010.
• The American Memory: Americans and Their History to 1877. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 2008.
  “The Reconstruction Amendments” in Brian L. Johnson and Edward J. Blum, eds., The Civil War and Reconstruction Era: 1850s-1877, releases from Manly, Inc., November 2009.
• “‘A People’s Dream Died There:’ Shatter Zones and the Trans-Mississippi West,” Heritage of the Great Plains 39, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 30-46.
• “Daniel W. Adams” and “William E. Baldwin,” forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Mississippi History.

Current Research Projects

1. I am currently completing my transcribing and editing of the Civil War letters of Private Silas W. Haven, a member of the 27th Iowa Infantry, who wrote nearly 200 letters to his wife, Jane, from 1862-65. The letters include vivid descriptions of life in camp and offer tantalizing analysis from the soldier in regards to issues of religion, politics, gender and race. The collection will surely help historians understand the life of a soldier who rarely saw battle.

2. I am also currently researching my second book, tentatively entitled, Reconstructing Manhood: Women and the Experience of Confederate Amputees. Initially, this work is only exploring the Confederacy, but may eventually expand to include the Union as well. I am seeking to offer the first major study that explores what it means to lose a limb during the Civil War. How did the loss of a limb change notions of manhood and, in turn, womanhood? Did notions of dependency change? How did the reality of defeat in the war alter the meaning of physical sacrifice for the soldier and their family? Any suggestions or hints on sources you may have as I undertake this project are greatly appreciated.