Author: Robert Bland

Introducing New Muster Contributors

Introducing New Muster Contributors

In today's Muster, we are excited to introduce four new contributors to our site. We are excited to welcome Cassy Werking, Will Horne, Elliott Martin, and Kris Plunkett to our team. They will contribute regular posts reflecting their respective interests and scholarly expertise in the Civil War era. Short bios ...
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Announcing the 2025 Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award

Announcing the 2025 Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award

The Journal of the Civil War Era is pleased to announce that Dr. J. Jacob Calhoun has been selected as the recipient of the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award for 2025. His winning essay is titled, “‘Nothing was known of the dead’: Coroners and the Massacres of 1866.” The prize committee, ...
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Conversation with Caleb Gayle

Conversation with Caleb Gayle

In today's Muster, JCWE Associate Editor Robert Bland has a conversation with Caleb Gayle, Associate Professor of Journalism and Africana Studies at Northeastern University. Gayle is the author of Black Moses: A Sage of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State (Penguin, 2025).  Gayle is an award-winning journalist whose ...
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Announcing the Winner of the 2024 George and Ann Richards Prize

Announcing the Winner of the 2024 George and Ann Richards Prize

Guy Emerson Mount has won the $1,000 George and Ann Richards Prize for the best article published in The Journal of the Civil War Era in 2024. The article, “Shall I Go? Black Colonization in the Pacific, 1840-1914” appeared in the December 2024 special issue, Black Internationalism in the Era of Emancipation, guest edited by ...
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Call for Muster Contributors

Call for Muster Contributors

Muster is looking for contributors! We are looking for scholars from a wide range of perspectives to add new voices to our roster. Please read the announcement below and reach out to rbland4@utk.edu if you have any questions. The deadline for applications is October 1, 2025 ...
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Conversation with June 2025 Special Issue Editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts

Conversation with June 2025 Special Issue Editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts

In today’s Muster, Associate Editor Robert Bland discusses the JCWE’s June special issue on material culture with guest editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts. Dr. Cashin is a professor of history at Ohio State University and author of War Stuff: The Struggle for Human and Environmental Resources in ...
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Andrew Donnelly, Confederate Sympathies, and the History of Same-Sex Romance during the Civil War Era

Andrew Donnelly, Confederate Sympathies, and the History of Same-Sex Romance during the Civil War Era

In today’s Muster, associate editor Robert Bland is joined by Andrew Donnelly to discuss his new book Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion, and Reunion in the Civil War Era. Professor Donnelly is an assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis. His work has been supported by fellowships from ...
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Interview with Michael Allen on a Career in Public History

Interview with Michael Allen on a Career in Public History

Today's Muster features an interview with Michael Allen, a retired National Park Service official. Over the course of his nearly four decade career, Allen has played a pivotal role in how several Civil War Era sites have reshaped their interpretative vision of the past. More recently, he has played a ...
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2025 Tom Watson Brown Book Award

2025 Tom Watson Brown Book Award

The $50,000 Tom Watson Brown Book Award is presented annually by the Watson-Brown Foundation and the Society of Civil War Historians to the author or authors of the best book “on the causes, conduct, and effects, broadly defined, of the Civil War,” published in the preceding year. Each year Tad ...
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Congratulations to Bianca Dang and Christina C. Davidson

Congratulations to Bianca Dang and Christina C. Davidson

The Latin American Studies Association recently awarded both Bianca Dang and Christina C. Davidson with their 2025 Best Article Prize. Dr. Dang and Dr. Davidson  were honored for their respective contributions to the JCWE's 2025 special issue on Black internationalism, which was edited by Brandon R. Byrd. You may read ...
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Interview with Melissa DeVelvis on Gendering Secession

Interview with Melissa DeVelvis on Gendering Secession

In today’s Muster, JCWE associate editor Robert Bland interviews Melissa DeVelvis, author of Gendering Secession: White Women in the Politics of South Carolina, 1859 to 1861 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2025). Gender Secession explores the lives and politics of South Carolina's elite white women during the end of the ...
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Call for Submissions: Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Prize

Call for Submissions: Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Prize

 The Society of Civil War Historians and the Journal of the Civil War Era invite submissions from early career scholars (doctoral candidates at the writing stage and PhDs not more than two years removed from having earned their degree) for the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award. Papers on any topic concerning ...
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Call for Papers: JCWE Special Issue on Politics, the State, and American Capitalism in the Civil War Era

Call for Papers: JCWE Special Issue on Politics, the State, and American Capitalism in the Civil War Era

CALL FOR PAPERS                                                                                                ...
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Call for Proposals: Civil War Era Article Workshop

Call for Proposals: Civil War Era Article Workshop

The Richards Center at Penn State and the Journal of the Civil War Era (JCWE) are excited to announce a journal article workshop for advanced graduate students, recent Phds, assistant professors, and independent scholars. The deadline for applying is April 1, 2025. Completed applications should be emailed to RichardsCenter@psu.edu ...
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Book Interview with Bennett Parten

Book Interview with Bennett Parten

Today's Muster features an interview with Dr. Bennett Parten, author of the recently released Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation. Dr. Parton is an assistant professor of history at Georgia Southern University. A native of Royston, Georgia, Parton's writing has appeared in the Washington ...
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Interview with Brandon Byrd on JCWE’s Black Internationalism Special Issue

In today's Muster, JCWE associate editor Robert Bland interviews Dr. Brandon R. Byrd, editor and organizer of the journal's December 2024 special issue on Black Internationalism. Dr. Byrd is an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University and the author of The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of ...
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