Dr. Christopher Olsen
Education
- Ph.D. - U. S. History, University of Florida - 1996
- M.A. - United States History, University of Nebraska - 1990
- B.A. - History, North Dakota State University - 1988
Teaching Interests
- United States in the Nineteenth Century<br>World Slavery<br>Political Culture and American Politics
Research Interests
- Antebellum United States<br>Political Culture and Gender
Prof. Olsen received his PhD from the University of Florida in 1996. He writes and teaches primarily about the history of antebellum and Civil War America, particularly in the areas of political culture, sectionalism, and gender. His current book project is a history of the process of elections and voting in antebellum America.
University of Florida 1990-1996 Ph.D., United States History
Minors: Colonial Latin America & Political Culture Theory
University of Nebraska 1988-1990 M.A., United States History
Minor: British Empire
North Dakota State University 1984-1988 B.A., History
Some recent publications and papers
“The Politics of Honor and Masculinity,” in Southern Identities: New Essays in the History of an American Region, eds., Daniel Kilbride and Lisa Tendrich Frank, “Southern Dissent” series, eds. Randall Miller and Stanley Harrold (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2011).
“White Families and Political Culture in the Old South,” in Family Values in the Old South, eds. Craig Thompson Friend and Anya Jabour (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2010).
“Eliza Frances Andrews: ‘I Will Have to Say ‘Damn!’ Yet, Before I Am Done with Them’,” in Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume I, eds. Betty Wood and Ann Short Chirhart (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009).
Nominated for the A. Elizabeth Taylor Award (Southern Association for Women Historians)
The American Civil War: A Hands-On History (New York: Hill & Wang [Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux], 2006).
Nominated for The Lincoln Prize
Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Honor, Masculinity, and the Antiparty Tradition, 1830-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Nominated for Frederick Jackson Turner Prize (Organization of American Historians), Avery Craven Award (Organization of American Historians), Ellis Hawley Prize (Organization of American Historians), Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award (Southern Historical Association), Francis B. Simkins Award (Southern Historical Association), Social Science History Prize (Social Science History Association), Richard Aubrey McLemore Prize (Mississippi Historical Society), Eugene D. Genovese Book Prize (The Historical Society)
“Women and Party Politics in the Old South: Mississippi in the 1840s and 1850s,” Journal of Women’s History, 11:2 (Autumn 1999): 104-125.
“‘Molly Pitcher’ of the Mississippi Whigs: The Editorial Career of Mrs. Harriet N. Prewett,” The Journal of Mississippi History, LVIII (Fall 1996), 237-254.
“Poor Whites, Democracy, and Disenfranchisement,” review essay for the Civil War Book Review, Summer, 2017.
“Secessionist Movement,” in The Mississippi Encyclopedia, ed. Charles Reagan Wilson (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017).
“‘The Woman Reputed to be his Mother’: Race and Suffrage in Antebellum America,” British American Nineteenth-Century Historians Annual Conference, Cambridge University, United Kingdom, October 5-7, 2018 (paper).
“Poor Whites and the Politics of Masculinity: The Election of 1860 and Secession in the Deep South,” Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, St. Petersburg, FL, October 2016 (paper, had to be withdrawn).
“The Election Cycle, Election Inspectors, and Voter Eligibility: Regionalism and Political Culture in Antebellum America,” British American Nineteenth-Century Historians Annual Conference, Cambridge University, United Kingdom, October 9-11, 2015 (paper).
Antebellum United States and Civil War, United States South and Comparative Slavery, Political Culture
Nineteenth-century political culture; Antebellum America; Secession and Civil War; comparative slavery.
“From Barbecues to Ballots: How Elections Worked in Antebellum America,” manuscript in progress, under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press.