Research Interests

• United States History, 1815-1865
• Antebellum Politics
• Civil War
• The Irish in America

Courses Taught

• U.S. History to 1865 (HY 103)
• The Jacksonian Era (HY 300)
• The Coming of the Civil War (HY 314)
• The Civil War (HY 315)
• Life of Abraham Lincoln (HY 316)
• Survey of Irish History (HY 390)
• The Literature of American History (HY 601)

Blount Program Courses

• Individualism and Its Critics in American Life
• Against the Grain: Challenging Our Central Values
• Technology and Human Values in the Digital Age

Awards and Honors

• Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award, UA Alumni Association (2011)
• Last Lecture Award, UA Students and UA Graduate School (2010)
• Distinguished Teaching Fellow, UA College of Arts and Sciences (2005)
• Lilly Teaching Scholar, UA and Lilly Endowment (1989)

• The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, paperback ed., 1991).
• Editor, St. Clair Mulholland, The Story of the 116th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion (New York: Fordham University Press, 1995).
• Editor, David Power Conyngham, The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns (New York: Fordham University Press, 1994).
• Editor, William Corby, Memoirs of Chaplain Life: Three Years with the Irish Brigade in the Army of the Potomac (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992).
• Editor, American Civilization in the Nineteenth Century (Kendall/Hunt, 1990).
• Editor, Irish Green and Union Blue: The Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh (New York: Fordham University Press, 1986, paperback edition, 1994).