Books
Northern Men with Southern Loyalties: The Democratic Party and the Sectional Crisis.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Selected 2015 “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice magazine.
Articles & Essays
Old Buck’s Lieutenant: Glancy Jones, James Buchanan, and the Northern Democracy.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography CXL (April 2016): 183-201.
“Union and Confederate Politics” in Essential Civil War Curriculum. Edited by
James Robertson, William Davis, and Paul Quigley. May 2015.
“Union and Confederate Politics”
“President Polk as a Southern Sectionalist” in A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents, 1837-1861. Edited by Joel Silbey (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014): 269-290.
“‘A Champion Had Come’: William Pitt Fessenden and the Republican Party, 1854-1860.” American Nineteenth Century History 9 (September 2008): 269-285.
Public History
New York Almanack
“1860: A Southern Tourist Gives Saratoga, Lake George Mixed Reviews,” July 7, 2022
Simply Saratoga Magazine (Saratoga Springs, NY)
“Saving Brookside,” Summer 2022 print edition
The Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, NY)
“Saratoga History in Disney World,” Sept. 18, 2021
Times Union (Albany, NY)
“2020: Staggering Crises,” Jan. 2, 2021
“Southern Charm Suffers from Big History Problem,” Oct. 10, 2020
“US Repeats Awful Past,” July 28, 2019
Smithsonian Magazine (Washington, DC)
“The Little Mermaid Was Way More Subversive Than You Realized,” Nov. 5, 2019
“Proposal to Change the Words We Use When Talking About the Civil War,” Sept. 9, 2015
The Washington Post (Washington, DC)
“The United States Isn’t a Democracy,” Nov. 6, 2018
“It’s Been 155 Years Since the Senate Expelled a Member,” Nov. 15, 2017
Black Perspectives (African American Intellectual History Society)
“Antebellum Law and the Southern Justice System,” Mar. 6, 2018
Texas Tribune (Austin, TX)
“Most ‘Civil War’ Memorials Have Nothing to Do with the Civil War,” Aug. 28, 2017
US Intellectual History Blog
“Can Presidents Shape an Entire Era?,” May 25, 2017
“The Case Against Andrew Jackson,” Oct. 28, 2016
“Can Political History Be Intellectual History?,” Oct. 21, 2015
Mindpop (podcast, Dr. David Sehat)
“How Does Change Happen?,” Mar. 30, 2017
Muster (blog of the Journal of the Civil War Era)
“In ‘Defense’ of James Buchanan,” Jan. 5, 2017
The American Historian (Organization of American Historians)
“Producing Ethically Engaged Students,” Aug. 12, 2015
History News Network
“Are Republicans Courting Disaster with Trumpist Loyalty Tests?,” May 16, 2021
“The Balance of Power in 2021 Rests with Two Senators,” Feb. 14, 2021
“A Party in Secret Passes an Overwhelmingly Unpopular Law,” July 9, 2017
“Trump is Proving to Be Like Andrew Jackson,” Jan. 31, 2017
“The Movie About Reconstruction That You Forgot,” July 24, 2016
“Film Claims Democratic Party was Pro-Slavery. Here’s the Truth,” Mar. 13, 2016
“The Shameful History of the Democratic Party Before the Civil War,” June 7, 2015
The HAS Blog (Historians Against Slavery)
“Disney, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ and Human Trafficking,” July 2, 2017
We’re History
“Of Mice and Municipalities,” Oct. 8, 2016
“Mutant American History: Told Through the X-Men Prequels,” June 18, 2016
“Has Obama Survived the ‘2nd Term Curse’?,” Jan. 21, 2016
“Do Career Politicians Make Good Presidents?,” Oct. 15, 2015
“Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary: July 17, 1955,” July 17, 2015
“Lindsey Graham’s History Problem,” June 9, 2015
“The Dark Horse Danger: Democratic Lessons for Republicans in 2016,” Feb. 11, 2015