American History Untucked

Folks, I know it's been a long time since our last episode. Things have been kind of crazy, but I'm hoping to podcast more consistently this year.I'm really excited about our guest this episode: Ari Kelman. Ari is a professor at Penn State and author of Misplaced Massacre, which won all kinds of awards over the past couple of years. In our conversation, we mostly talk about his new book, Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War. We discuss the collaborative process Ari went through, working with an illustrator and co-author, to write Battle Lines.

My guest for this episode is Keith Harris. Keith is probably familiar to many people as the man behind the popular blog Cosmic America, which has now been replaced by his new site keithharrishistory. Keith is also the editor of an exciting new online journal, The Americanist Independent and the author of a recently published book, Across the Bloody Chasm: The Culture of Commemoration among Civil War Veterans.In our conversation, we talk about engaging with the public, about his recent and upcoming publications, and about the problems with the academic job market for historians.Here's a clip from my favorite feature from his old blog, Office Hours:

My guest for this episode is historian and podcaster Liz Covart. Her new podcast, Ben Franklin's World, been amazingly successful since it debuted at few months ago. We talk about academic historians and podcasting, how a podcaster envisions her/his audience, her research on New Englanders in upstate New York, and the snow in Boston.You can check out her show on iTunes and other popular podcasting venues.

Sorry for the long hiatus since the last episode. I'm really happy to be back with a new episode of American History Untucked.My guest for this show is Kevin Levin, whose blog Civil War Memory has been probably my favorite Civil War website for years. He is also the author of an excellent recent book, Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder and has written for the New York Times and the Atlantic. He's managed to do all this while teaching high school full time. 

My guest for this episode is Dr. Seth Kotch. Seth was a classmate of mine in graduate school and is now the Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities in the American Studies Department at UNC-Chapel Hill, a post has recently taken after a lengthy tenure as the Digital Projects Director at the Southern Oral History Program.This is kind of a short episode, as both Seth and I are in the heart of the fall semester and time was at something of a premium. We didn't get a chance to talk in depth about all of the interesting work Seth has done over the past few years. Here's a sampling:Mapping the Long Women's MovementMedia and the Movement (with Dr. Josh Davis, one of our grad school classmates)Seth has also done some excellent work on the death penalty in North Carolina. His book on the subject should be out in the next couple of years.

My guest for this episode is David Trowbridge, who teaches at Marshall University. He is the creator of the Clio app that uses GPS technology to direct users to historic sites and provides information about the site that you can consume on the go. It's open source, so users can add content about historic sites in their area. Adding content would be a great project for high school or college students. Here's a promo video about Clio: Trowbridge is also the author of A History of the United States and participated in a recent JAH roundtable on the current state of textbooks. Here's our conversation:

This is my first show of the new academic year and I was very pleased that Anne Sarah Rubin agreed to come on to talk about her new book on Sherman's March, Through the Heart of Dixie. We also got a chance to talk about the digital project that she had created to accompany the book, and about digital history more broadly, including her work with the Valley of the Shadow project.Unfortunately, the audio quality of the interview isn't great. I don't know whether the problem was with our skype connection or my recording software or my own incompetence (I'm betting on the last option). Anyway, I tried to clean it up as much as I could. It's still a great conversation, even if the audio leaves a lot to be desired.

My guest this week is Rachel Hope Cleves, author of The Reign of Terror in America and Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America. We talk about some events in her life that prompted her interest in the history of American violence, about LGBT history, and about her current research in Paris.Subscribe the show on iTunes and Stitcher. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter for updates on upcoming shows.

My guest this week is Rebecca Onion, author of Slate's The Vault blog and historian of childhood and science.For those of you who haven't looked at The Vault, here are some of my favorite gems (the latter two of which we discuss in the show): How Literate Are You by 1918 Standards? The Entire History of the World—Really, All of It—Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart Where To Find Historical “Redlining” Maps Of Your CityHere's her article on history on Twitter:Snapshots of History

My guest this week is Elizabeth (Lil) Fenn, Associate Professor of History at the University of Colorado - Boulder. We discussed her 2001 book Pox Americana and her new history of the Mandan Indians, Encounters at the Heart of the World. We also discussed her career as an auto mechanic during a hiatus in her academic career.

My guest for this show is Chris Cameron, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina  - Charlotte. We discussed his autobiography The Many Lives of Chris Cameron, his research on African American abolitionists (soon to be published as To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement), and his current research.

My guest for this show is Cathy Wright, the curator of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. We talk about what a curator does, the MOC upcoming merger with the American Civil War Museum, and about her favorite artifact in the collection.You can listen to our conversation here.

My guest for this show is Scott Reynolds Nelson, author of A Nation of Deadbeats, Steel Drivin' Man, and Iron Confederacies. We talk about the influence his father had on his research, how his approach to writing and research has changed over the years, and about meeting Bruce Springsteen.You can listen to show here.

My guest for this show is Donald Shaffer, author of After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans (Kansas, 2004) and the Civil War Emancipation blog. In this show we talk about his research, blogging, and teaching online.Listen here:https://ia902509.us.archive.org/31/items/AmericanHistoryUntucked004/American%20History%20Untucked%20004.mp3

My guest for this episode is my dear friend from grad school, Jackie Whitt. She has recently published Bringing God to Men: American Military Chaplains and the Vietnam War. There's a wonderful bit a few minutes in when her cat, General Sherman, attacks something in the next room.https://ia902505.us.archive.org/33/items/AmericanHistoryUntucked003/American%20History%20Untucked%20003.mp3

My guest for this episode is Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation and Trembling Earth. If you can't tell from our conversation, I really admire Megan's work. We talk about her research, ruins, and some interesting plans she has for the future.https://ia601401.us.archive.org/25/items/AmericanHistoryUntucked002/American%20History%20Untucked%20002.mp3

Here's our first episode. It introduces the show and its host.https://ia801806.us.archive.org/9/items/AmericanHistoryUntucked001/American%20History%20Untucked%20001.mp3