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April 12, 2021 marks 160 years to the day since the firing on Fort Sumter, the opening salvo of the Civil War. It can be tempting to think of that stretch of time as a massive gulf, practically unbridgeable at least in the timeline of American history. But consider this: we are now exactly as far removed from the attack on Pearl Harbor, eighty years ago, as Pearl Harbor was ....
by Sarah Lindenfeld Hall Family history was a spark for Better Luck Next Time, the latest novel by Julia Claiborne Johnson (Col ’81). Set in 1938 Reno, Nevada, then dubbed the world’s divorce capital, the action primarily takes place on the Flying Leap dude ranch, which provided a place for women to stay as they established state residency so they could get divorced. During the Depression, Johnson’s father worked as a cowboy at a Nevada divorce ranch. The similarities between the book and real life mostly end there, Johnson says, but the setting seemed like fertile territory to explore a place where men were the eye candy and women had some control. “A flip of the usual situation,” says Johnson, whose first book, ....
In July 2020, UVA Press was proud to publish Dr. Adrian Brettle’s debut book: Colossal Ambitions: Confederate Planning for a Post-Civil War World. Recently, Dr. Brettle’s book was named a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, awarded annually to the best scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or the American Civil War era. Past winners include Elizabeth Varon’s Armies of Deliverance, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, and David Blight’s Race and Reunion. As the editorial fellow at the press, Clayton Butler recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Brettle about his work. Our discussion touched on Confederates’ economic and social philosophies, how Dr. Brettle’s work relates to contemporary historiography, and the way that Confederates’ wartime planning and visions for the future give the lie to the Lost Cause, providing a final nail in the coffin of that persistent and pernicious narra ....