Rebels and Regimes presents a global view of the nature of violent resistance throughout the nineteenth century. The volume’s breadth and scope reveal commonalities and differences among regimes and insurgents in their different contexts, offering a view that the participants themselves never had. The collection is composed of ten essays, each focused on a specific conflict or period of colonial overreach: imperialist efforts against Caribbean maroons, the Peninsular War, the Seco...

Throughout the Civil War, irregular warfare—including the use of hit-and-run assaults, ambushes, and raiding tactics—thrived in localized guerrilla fights within the Border States and the Confederate South. The Guerrilla Hunters offers a comprehensive overview of the tactics, motives, and actors in these conflicts, from the Confederate-authorized Partisan Rangers, a military force directed to spy on, harass, and steal from Union forces, to men like John Gatewood, who deserted the Confedera...

Films possess virtually unlimited power for crafting broad interpretations of American history. Nineteenth-century America has proven especially conducive to Hollywood imaginations, producing indelible images like the plight of Davy Crockett and the defenders of the Alamo, Pickett’s doomed charge at Gettysburg, the proliferation and destruction of plantation slavery in the American South, Custer’s fateful decision to divide his forces at Little Big Horn, and the onset of immigration and in...

Vision and Resilience recounts the remarkable turnaround of a satellite campus that became one of the brightest spots in the Penn State University system: Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Covering the period from 1980 to 2010, this story serves as a blueprint for administrators who aspire to grow their institutions in challenging times.Joseph M. Beilein Jr. writes about how, at a time when tensions were high between faculty and the administration, students and the adm...

Few men of the Civil War era were as complicated or infamous as William Clarke Quantrill. Most who know him recognize him as the architect of the Confederate raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863 that led to the murder of 180 mostly unarmed men and boys. Before that, though, Quantrill led a transient life, shifting from one masculine form to another. He played the role of fastidious schoolmaster, rough frontiersman, and even confidence man, developing certain notions and skills on his w...

Household War restores the centrality of households to the American Civil War. The essays in the volume complicate the standard distinctions between battlefront and homefront, soldier and civilian, and men and women. From this vantage point, they look at the interplay of family and politics, studying the ways in which the Civil War shaped and was shaped by the American household. They explore how households influenced Confederate and Union military strategy, the motivations of sol...

Civil War historians shed new light on the importance of guerrilla combat across the south in this "useful and fascinating work" ( Choice).Touching states from Virginia to New Mexico, guerrilla warfare played a significant yet underexamined role in the Civil War. Guerrilla fighters fought for both the Union and the Confederacy—as well as their own ethnic groups, tribes, or families. They were deadly forces that plundered, tortured, and terrorized those in t...

During the Civil War, William H. Gregg served as William Clarke Quantrill’s de facto adjutant from December 1861 until the spring of 1864, making him one of the closest people to the Confederate guerrilla leader. “Quantrill’s raiders” were a partisan ranger outfit best known for their brutal guerrilla tactics, which made use of Native American field skills. Whether it was the origins of Quantrill’s band, the early warfare along the border, the planning and execution of the raid on Lawrence...