Mark E. Neely Jr.

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Neely in 2012 Mark E. Neely Jr. 2012 (cropped).jpg
Neely in 2012

Mark E. Neely Jr. (born November 10, 1944 in Amarillo, Texas) is an American historian best known as an authority on the U.S. Civil War in general and Abraham Lincoln in particular. [1]

Contents

Biography

Neely was born in Texas. He earned his BA in American Studies and PhD in history at Yale University in 1966 and 1973. Yale's Graduate School awarded him a Wilbur Cross Medal in 1995.

In 1971–1972 Neely was a visiting instructor at Iowa State University. In 1972 he was named director of the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a position he held for 20 years.

In 1992 Dr. Neely was named the John Francis Bannon Professor of History and American Studies at Saint Louis University. In 1998 he was named the McCabe Greer Professor of Civil War History at Pennsylvania State University.

Neely is best known for his 1991 book The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties , which won both the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for History [2] and the 1992 Bell I. Wiley Award. [3] In March 1991 he published an article in the magazine Civil War History entitled "Was the Civil War a Total War?," which is considered one of the three most influential articles on the war written in the last half of the 20th century.[ citation needed ]

According to the review in the Journal of American History, his 2011 book Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation "is a meticulous study of Civil War-era constitutionalism, a complex and multifaceted book.... Neely has written what is perhaps the most important study of its kind to appear in the last 20 years." [4]

In 2010, Neely received The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement. [5]

Works

External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Booknotes with Neely on The Last Best Hope of Earth, June 12, 1994, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Neely on Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation, September 16, 2012, C-SPAN

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References

  1. Harold Holzer, “Afterword: On Mark Neely: An Appreciation.” in This Distracted and Anarchical People: New Answers for Old Questions about the Civil War-Era North, edited by Andrew L. Slap and Michael Thomas Smith, (Fordham University Press, 2013), pp. 201–06. JSTOR
  2. Heinz Dietrich Fischer; Erika J. Fischer (2005). Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for history: discussions, decisions and documents. K.G. Saur. p. 33. ISBN   978-3-598-30189-6 . Retrieved December 2, 2010.
  3. The Civil War Round Table of New York
  4. Brian R. Dirck, "Review" Journal of American History 99#3 (2012), pp. 870–72. online
  5. The Lincoln Forum