Figuring out the best structure for your project is a vital part of the writing process. For most academic historians, the basic structures for journal articles, masters’ theses/Ph.D. dissertations, and books are pre-determined: an introduction with a descriptive opening, a historiographical turn, and then argument-driven sections, followed by a conclusion. For historians . . .
Read MoreWhen I left academia, my plan was to write a book that I had been thinking about for a while. A book that would tell the complicated story of the Civil War in the Southwest, a theater little-known in American culture and often overlooked (or outright dismissed) in histories of the conflict. . . .
Read MoreAs a historian of American culture and of the Civil War in particular, it has been hard to know how to feel about the events of the past year. On the one hand, the 2016 election, with its shocking (at least to me) and devastating effects, has resulted in an almost daily . . .
Read More