Brian and Bill chat with Lorien Foote, one of the most important historians of the American Civil War experience. Lorien is the Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor in History at Texas A&M University, moving to College Station in 2013 after several years in the History Department at the University of Central Arkansas. She is the author of several books, including The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners of War (University of North Carolina Press, 2016), which was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title; The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Manhood, Honor, and Violence in the Union Army (New York University Press, 2010), which was a finalist and honorable mention for the 2011 Lincoln Prize; and most recently Rites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). With Daniel Krebs of the University of Louisville, she has also recently published a collection of essays on the American POW experience, titled Useful Captives: The Role of POWs in American Military Conflicts (University Press of Kansas, 2021), which includes a mighty fine essay “Down, but Not Out: Manhood and the American Prisoner-of-War Experience in World War,” by one Brian Feltman. She is the creator and principal investigator of a groundbreaking Digital Humanities Project, “Fugitive Federals,” which traces the escape and movement of over 3000 Union POWs during the American Civil War.
Brian and Bill chat with Lorien about how she came to be a Civil War historian, what drew her to issues of masculinity and POW experience in history, and what it’s like to be a woman in a field still dominated by male academics. We’ll also discuss what’s going on in Aggieland and find out the best BBQ in College Station. So, join us for our conversation with Lorien Foote!
rec. 11/09/2021
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