Drew Gilpin Faust

Harvard University stands poised to appoint its first woman president, named Drew Gilpin Faust. Prof. Faust is, I am very happy to report, a Civil War historian of some distinction.

Prof. Faust has written a number of very well-regarded books on the Civil War South. Her most recent title, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, was described as “a major contribution to both Civil War historiography and women’s studies in this outstanding analysis of the impact of secession, invasion and conquest on Southern white women” by Publisher’s Weekly. She is also the author of The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South, a study of the growth of the Confederate nationalist movement.

Although Prof. Faust’s studies are not military studies, they nevertheless are devoted to the Civil War. That can only help, and I hope that here appointment heralds the coming of a new respect for the Civil War era and for the military history of that important period of American history among the halls of academia. Congratulations, Prof. Faust, and keep up the good work.