Podcasts about ruin nation destruction

This week Historians At The Movies gets into Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. And I've got two of the best damn historians working today to talk about it. And yes, we're ranking the hottest presidents of all time.About our guests: Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and currently is a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. She received her B.A. with honors in history and political science from George Washington University, her masters and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and her postdoctoral fellowship from Southern Methodist University. Previously Dr. Chervinsky worked as a historian at the White House Historical Association. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Bulwark, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN, NBC Think, and the Washington Post. Dr. Chervinsky is the author of the award-winning book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, recently out in paperback, and the forthcoming book An Honest Man: The Inimitable Presidency of John Adams.Dr. Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History); Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012); and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). Megan writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. For several years, she also wrote movie and TV series reviews for the Civil War Monitor. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, Megan taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She grew up in Colorado but now lives outside Boston with her husband and two cats. 

In 1871 an expedition entered the territory now encompassed by Yellowstone National Park. Led by doctor and self-taught geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, it was to be the first scientific expedition into that mysterious place. But it was also, says my guest Megan Kate Nelson, part of a larger struggle over the expansion of federal power during Reconstruction. Hayden would be one of the three men who would strive for control of Yellowstone, and the surrounding territory. The others were Jay Cooke, a Philadelphia investment banker raising capital for the Northern Pacific Railroad; and a Lakota leader known to English speakers as Sitting Bull, who was determined to stop the building of the Northern Pacific. These are some of the protagonists of Nelson's new book Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America.   Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian, living in Massachusetts. She was previously on the podcast in Episode 23 discussing her book Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War. For Further Investigation An excerpt from Megan's book appears on the website of Smithsonian magazine If you're interested in learning more about the historical discipline of Environmental History, you should listen to this very early conversation with my old friend Brian Leech

Today's guest is Megan Kate Nelson, a 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History finalist for her outstanding book The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner, 2020), which also earned the following mentions: Smithsonian Magazine's Top Ten History Books of 2020 Civil War Monitor's Top Civil War Books of 2020 2021 Emerging Civil War Book Award 2021 Pate Award, Fort Worth (Tex.) Civil War Roundtable Business Insider's 23 Best History Books Written by Women Finalist, 2021 Reading the West Book Award (Narrative Non-Fiction) Fifty Books of the West List, Tattered Cover Bookstore and the Colorado Sun Wow! Some years ago, Megan left the academic world to become a full-time writer after teaching U.S. history and American Studies for several years at Texas Tech, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She earned her B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Megan is primarily a historian of the American Civil War, the U.S. West, and popular culture. She has written related pieces for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Preservation Magazine, and Civil War Times. Megan's column on Civil War popular culture, "Stereoscope," appears regularly in Civil War Monitor. She is also the author of Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2009) and Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012). A recent electee to the Society of American Historians, Megan's latest project is Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, which Scribner will publish in March 2022. We've seen galleys - what a story! Megan is also an avid cyclist and cocktail enthusiast - we'll also ask her about BBQ preferences. And her Twitter feed is worth your enjoyment - @megankatenelson, as is her blog Historista is both provocative and instructive for historians and anyone interested in history. Join us as we enter unchartered territory taking with a Pulitizer finalist! A little Calusetwizian Electronic Friction - Brian's mic went out halfway through. He showed his genius in quickly switching to the built-in computer mic - he'll suddenly get a little louder! Rec. 12/21/2021

The transatlantic slave trade dominated in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. But by 1808, a different slave trade came to dominate in the young United States, the domestic or internal slave trade.
 Joshua D. Rothman, an award-winning historian, Professor of History at the University of Alabama, and author of the book, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America, leads us on an exploration of the United States' domestic slave trade and the lives of three slave traders who helped to define this trade. 
 Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/312 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Save 40 percent with code 01BFW on Carolyn Eastman, The Strange Genius of Mr. O  Inside Ben Franklin's World Event with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania LightStream by SunTrust Bank Loans  Complementary Episodes Episode 063: Megan Kate Nelson, Ruin Nation: Destruction and the Civil War Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, The Transatlantic Boycott of Slave Labor  Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave Episode 281: Caitlin Rosenthal, The Business of Slavery Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The American Civil War is a much studied subject. Dr. Megan Kate Nelson visits with me about her new book "The Three Cornered War," a look at the struggle for the New Mexico Territory. The story is told expertly through the viewpoint of various characters of the struggle. Dr. Nelson is the author of  Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War and many articles on history and culture. More information can be found on Dr. Nelson at megankatenelson.com.

Megan Kate Nelson's interdisciplinary approach to environmental history puts towering events like the Civil War into wholly new contexts. Her book Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War investigates the human, biological, and infrastructural devastation of the era, and asks critical questions about American memory. In this conversation she explains the development of her methodology and the direction of the historical discipline. 

Megan Kate Nelson, Author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War CUNY Graduate Center, July 15, 2016In this talk, Megan Kate Nelson discusses the proliferation of photographs that focus on ruins and war-torn bodies in 1864/1865, at the end of the civil war. Nelson looks at photos taken by union photographers and the narratives created with these photos. By examining the historical context of the photographs, Nelson argues that photography can be as ambiguous as other forms of wartime narratives. This talk took place on July 15, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

The American Civil War claimed more than 620,000 American lives. Did you know that it also cost American forests, landscapes, cities, and institutions? Today, we explore the different types of ruination wrought by the American Civil War with Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War. Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/063   Helpful Show Links Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign   Ask the Historian Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

The Civil War was incredibly destructive–750,000 dead, according to the latest revision of the numbers, meaning that more Americans died in the Civil War than in all other American wars combined. But it also resulted in untold numbers of wounded and maimed. Of all the operations performed in the Civil War, 75% or roughly 60,000, were amputations.  Also, for the very first time, American cities stood in ruins. Atlanta; Columbia and Charleston in South Carolina; and Petersburg, Fredericksburg, and Richmond in Virginia looked like the standing stones of some long-lost civilization. Americans no longer had to travel to Europe to meditate upon days gone by. Even forests, in some places, were clear cut. But...not all of those cities were ruined; only a portion of Richmond was destroyed for example, and many colonial-era buildings survive in Fredericksburg. The little town of Gettysburg had the largest battle in North American history swirl around it for three days, and yet it remains largely in one piece, to the delight of 21st century tourists. Some forest were reduced to stumps, but others in the same neighborhood exist to this day. How to square this circle? How could the Civil War be destructive, and yet often remembered as even more destructive? How, too, did traces of that ruin so quickly disappear? And what were the longest-lasting memorials to that ruin? Answering these and other questions is the task of Megan Kate Nelson in her fantastic book Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War. Using a variety of sources, she picks apart the different ways ruin was visited by Americans upon each other, their cities, and their landscape: on cities, the environment, and on their bodies. Enjoy the podcast, and buy the book! For Further Investigation Megan Kate Nelson, The Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp David W. Blight, Race and Reunion Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War Jack Temple Kirby, Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South Charles Royster, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans Harry Stout, Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War

Megan Kate Nelson, author of "Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War."

Megan Kate Nelson, author of "Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War."

Megan Kate Nelson, author of "Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War."

Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War.

Megan Kate Nelson, author of "Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War."