United States History

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  Bluecoats and Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina

  Though the Civil War ended in April 1865, the conflict between Unionists and Confederates continued. The bitterness and rancor resulting from the collapse of the Confederacy spurred an ongoing cycle of hostility and bloodshed that made the Reconstruction period a violent era of transition. The violence was so pervasive that the federal government deployed units of the U.S. Army in North Carolina and other southern states to maintain law and order and protect blacks and Unionists. This book tells the story of the army's twelve-year occupation of North Carolina, a time of political instability and social unrest. This book details ...Read More

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  This is Home Now: Kentucky's Holocaust Survivors Speak

  The term “Holocaust survivors” is often associated with Jewish communities in New York City or along Florida's Gold Coast. Traditionally, tales of America's Holocaust survivors, in both individual and cultural histories, have focused on places where people fleeing from Nazi atrocities congregated in large numbers for comfort and community following World War II. Yet not all Jewish refugees chose to settle in heavily populated areas of the United States. This book focuses on overlooked stories that unfolded in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It presents the accounts of Jewish survivors who resettled not in major metropolitan areas but in southern, ...Read More

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  Madeline McDowell Breckinridge and the Battle for a New South

  Preeminent Kentucky reformer and women's rights advocate Madeline McDowell Breckinridge (1872–1920) was at the forefront of social change during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Breckinridge had a remarkably varied activist career that included roles in the promotion of public health, education, women's rights, and charity. Founder of the Lexington Civic League and Associated Charities, she successfully lobbied to create parks and playgrounds and to establish a juvenile court system in Kentucky. Breckinridge also became president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and even campaigned across the country ...Read More

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  Entangled by White Supremacy: Reform in World War I-era South Carolina

  This book analyzes World War I-era South Carolina, a state whose white minority maintained political power by rigidly enforcing white supremacy over an African American majority. Considering the aspirations and actions of both black and white reformers, the book looks at the influence of a multifaceted ideology of white supremacy that became a barrier to the region's progress. Detailing African American resistance to white supremacy long before the Civil Rights era, the book illuminates the critical nature of South Carolina to the civil rights movement.

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  Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, Kentucky, 1945-1980

  Situated on the banks of the Ohio River, Louisville, Kentucky, represents a cultural and geographical intersection of North and South. Throughout its history, Louisville has simultaneously displayed northern and southern characteristics in its race relations. In their struggles against racial injustice in the mid-twentieth century, activists in Louisville crossed racial, economic, and political dividing lines to form a wide array of alliances not seen in other cities of its size. This book provides the first comprehensive look at the distinctive elements of Louisville's civil rights movement. The book frames the analysis by defining a border as a space where historical ...Read More

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  Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy

  The “Kentucky Tragedy” was early America's best known true crime story. In 1825, Jereboam O. Beauchamp assassinated Kentucky attorney general Solomon P. Sharp. The murder, trial, conviction, and execution of the killer—as well as the suicide of his wife, Anna Cooke Beauchamp—fascinated Americans. The episode became the basis of dozens of novels and plays composed by some of the country's most esteemed literary talents, among them Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms. This book peels away two centuries of myth to provide a more accurate account of the murder. It also reveals how Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp shaped the ...Read More

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  The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky

  The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky is the authoritative reference on the people, places, history, and rich heritage of the Northern Kentucky region. The encyclopedia defines an overlooked region of more than 450,000 residents and celebrates its contributions to agriculture, art, architecture, commerce, education, entertainment, literature, medicine, military, science, and sports. Often referred to as one of the points of the “Golden Triangle” because of its proximity to Lexington and Louisville, Northern Kentucky is made up of eleven counties along the Ohio River: Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Mason, Owen, Pendleton, and Robertson.

  With more than 2,000 entries, 170 ...Read More

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  Bluejackets and Contrabands: African Americans and the Union Navy

  One of the lesser-known stories of the Civil War is the role played by escaped slaves in the Union blockade along the Atlantic coast. From the beginning of the war, many African American refugees sought avenues of escape to the North. Due to their sheer numbers, those who reached Union forces presented a problem for the military. The problem was partially resolved by the First Confiscation Act of 1861, which permitted the seizure of property used in support of the South's war effort, including slaves. Eventually regarded as contraband of war, the runaways became known as contrabands. This book examines ...Read More

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  Josie Underwood's Civil War Diary

  A well-educated, outspoken member of a politically prominent family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Josie Underwood (1840–1923) left behind one of the few intimate accounts of the Civil War written by a southern woman sympathetic to the Union. This portrayal of the early years of the war begins several months before the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. Offering a unique perspective on the tensions between the Union and the Confederacy, Josie reveals that Kentucky was a hotbed of political and military action, particularly in her hometown of Bowling Green, known as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. ...Read More

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  The Line: Combat in Korea, January-February 1951

  Many combat veterans refuse to discuss their experiences on the line. With the passage of time and the unreliability of memory, it becomes difficult to understand the true nature of war. In The Line: Combat in Korea, January–February 1951, retired Army colonel William T. Bowers uses firsthand, eyewitness accounts of the Korean War to offer readers an intimate look at the heroism and horror of the battlefront. These interviews of soldiers on the ground are particularly telling because they were conducted by Army historians immediately following combat. Known as the “forgotten war,” the action in Korea lasted from June 1950 ...Read More