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Amy Murrell Taylor

Education:
A.B., Duke University
M.A., University of Virginia
Ph.D., University of Virginia
Biography:

 

Amy Murrell Taylor is a historian of the U.S. South in the 19th century, with special attention to the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. 

Her latest book, Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War's Slave Refugee Camps (UNC Press, 2018), received multiple national awards including the Frederick Douglass Book Prize given by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance at Yale University and the Merle Curti Social History Award from the Organization of American Historians. Embattled Freedom is a study of the many thousands of men, women, and children who fled slavery and sought refuge behind the lines of the Union army during the American Civil War. Taylor is also the co-editor, with Stephen Berry, of the "UnCivil Wars" series with the University of Georgia Press, as well as a member of the Executive Councils of the Southern Historical Association and the Society of Civil War Historians. Taylor is currently working on several projects related to the history of everyday life in Reconstruction, including a study of a free town in Virginia, and a GIS-based genealogy of Emancipation Day commemorations. She is also involved in a variety of public history and historic preservation projects in central Kentucky.

Taylor has written for the Times Literary Supplement and been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Slate, C-Span, and CBS Evening News. 

Research Interests:
19th Century U.S. South
Civil War and Reconstruction
slavery and emancipation
Race and Gender
Public History
Cultural Memory
Books

America: A Narrative History, with Daina Ramey Berry, Joseph Crespino, and David Shi (W.W. Norton, forthcoming) 

Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War's Slave Refugee Camps (UNC Press, 2018)

Co-editor, with Michael Perman, Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction, 3rd ed. (Cengage, 2010)

The Divided Family in Civil War America (UNC Press, 2005)

Awards & Fellowships

Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences, 2020-2021, University of Kentucky 
University Research Professor, University of Kentucky, 2020 
Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance, Yale University, 2019
OAH Merle Curti Award for best book in American social history, 2019
OAH Avery O. Craven Award for most original book on the Civil War & Reconstruction, 2019
John Nau Book Prize, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History, University of Virginia, 2019
Tom Watson Brown Book Award, Society of Civil War Historians, 2019
Governor's Book Award, Kentucky Historical Society & Office of the Governor, 2019
Theodore A. Hallam Book Award, University of Kentucky Department of History, 2019
Short list, Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History, 2019
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2019
Provost's Award for Outstanding Teaching, University of Kentucky, 2019
Faculty Mentor of the Week, University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research, April 2018
Great Teacher Award, University of Kentucky Alumni Association, 2016 (Profile)
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2009-2010
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 2008-2009