Being a creative individual doesn't mean you are incapable of atrocities and hurting other people. The perfect example of this statement is Jack Henry Abbott, an inmate, and a criminal who spent the majority of his life behind the bars. Unable to find peace with the outcome of his life, he found a new love while being locked up – literature. He was never a great student, but Abbott clearly had a talent for writing. It helped him become friends with one of the greatest writers of his genera...

Buying and Selling Civil War Memory explores the ways in which Gilded Age manufacturers, advertisers, publishers, and others commercialized Civil War memory. Advertisers used images of the war to sell everything from cigarettes to sewing machines; an entire industry grew up around uniforms made for veterans rather than soldiers; publishing houses built subscription bases by tapping into wartime loyalties; while old and young alike found endless sources of entertainment that harken...