Monthly Archives: January 2017
Why Study History?
This is an excellent book by John Fea, Associate Professor of American History and Chair of the History Department at Messiah College. Professor Fea is also a blogging colleague, blogging at The Way of Improvement Leads Home, which is also the title of an earlier book of his, subtitled, Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural […]
McCulloch v. Maryland
The citation for this case is 17 [4 Wheat] US 316. This 1819 case is a landmark decision. It was argued from 22 February to 3 March 1819 and decided on 6 March 1819 on a 7-0 vote. In one of the most important decisions in the Supreme Court’s history, Chief Justice John Marshall’s ruling […]
Sick From Freedom
This book by Jim Downs tells about what happened to African-Americans after they gained freedom. Professor Downs, in introducing his subject, tells us, “The Civil War, however, produced the largest biological crisis of the nineteenth century, claiming more soldiers’ lives and resulting in more casualties than battle or warfare and wreaking havoc on the population […]
Reconstruction: The Unifinished War
Wednesday, January 18, 2017, I attended a reception for the opening of a new exhibit at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, titled, “Reconstruction: The Unfinished War.” Curator Brett Kelly and CEO Wayne Motts and their team have done a good job bringing together various artifacts and providing the interpretation to go along […]
Ableman v. Booth and United States v. Booth
The citation for this case is 62 US 506. The case was argued on 19 January 1859 and decided on 7 March 1859 by a 9-0 vote, with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney writing the Court’s opinion. The case came out of Benjamin Garland of Missouri going to Wisconsin to capture an escaped slave named […]
Reconstruction and 1876: Crash Course US History
Here’s the Crash Course episode on Reconstruction. The video’s description reads, “In which John Green teaches you about Reconstruction. After the divisive, destructive Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had a plan to reconcile the country and make it whole again. Then he got shot, Andrew Johnson took over, and the disagreements between Johnson and Congress ensured […]
Lincoln and the Constitution
This short book by Professor Brian R. Dirck is another in the Southern Illinois University Press’ “Concise Lincoln Library” series. Short enough to be read in a single sitting, the book gives us the most current scholarship on Lincoln’s constitutional thought and actions. Professor Dirck begins by tracing the development of Lincoln’s constitutionalism. “Even if […]
Student of the American Civil War 
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