Overview

The Historian behind the History brings together for the first time a collection of valuable interviews with prominent southern historians conducted over the course of a decade by graduate students in the University of Alabama’s history program. In the interviews, ten notable southern historians and mentors illuminate the state of historiography, their experiences in the profession, and their thoughts about graduate education and southern history. The student-edited journal Southern Historian includes one interview each year; interviews from the journal’s first ten years are gathered here for the first time. The interviews are with some of the most respected southern historians and cover a range of southern history. The historians and their main topics include: Richard J. M. Blackett on antebellum and African American history Dan T. Carter on Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and George Wallace Pete Daniel on the New Deal and the Cold War South Laura F. Edwards on the Early Republic, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and women’s history William W. Freehling on the antebellum South Gary W. Gallagher on the Civil War Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore on Jim Crow James M. McPherson on the Civil War Theodore Rosengarten on the Depression J. Mills Thornton III on the antebellum South In his introduction, award-winning author and historian George C. Rable draws together the multifaceted themes of these interviews, offering a compelling overview of the nature of the field. Edited by Megan L. Bever and Scott A. Suarez, The Historian behind the History offers critical insights about the craft and professional life of the historian.

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9780817318512

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Reviews

The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--will allow this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well.--Randall L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In his Time and Ours

The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--allows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. --Randal L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours What an inspired idea to have graduate students probe gifted historians about the life choices that guided them toward scholarly careers. There's a freshness to the interviews, a humanizing of historiography, that probably wouldn't have come through had a professional peer been the person doing the probing. An added bonus is George Rable's superb introduction. --Lawrence N. Powell, author of The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans and Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke's Louisiana The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects shareincluding the role of luck and serendipity in their careersallows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. Randal L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects shareincluding the role of luck and serendipity in their careersallows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. Randal L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--allows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. --Randal L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--will allow this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well.--Randall L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In his Time and Ours

The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--allows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. --Randall L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours

What an inspired idea to have graduate students probe gifted historians about the life choices that guided them toward scholarly careers. There's a freshness to the interviews, a humanizing of historiography, that probably wouldn't have come through had a professional peer been the person doing the probing. An added bonus is George Rable's superb introduction. --Lawrence N. Powell, author of The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans and Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke's Louisiana The Historian behind the History is an absorbing collection of interviews with leading southern historians that will have particular value to graduate students as well as teachers of graduate students. Nevertheless, the distinctive life stories that the subjects share--including the role of luck and serendipity in their careers--allows this fascinating book to appeal to a broad audience beyond academia. Future historians tracing the intellectual growth of southern history will learn much as well. --Randal L. Hall, author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South and Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours

Author Information

Megan L. Bever is an assistant professor of history at Missouri Southern State University, USA. Scott A. Suarez is pursuing his PhD at the University of Alabama, USA. George C. Rable is the Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama, USA. His books include Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!, which won the Lincoln Prize, the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award in American Military History, the Jefferson Davis Award, and the Douglas Southall Freeman History Award; The Confederate Republic: A Revolution Against Politics; and God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War.

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