Dr. April Holm is an Associate Professor of History in the Department of History at ·¬ÇÑÉçÇø. She is also the Director of the Center for Civil War Research.
Research Interests
Dr. April Holm is a historian of the nineteenth century United States with a particular interest in sectionalism, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Christianity, and the border states. Her work concerns the intersection of the moral and the political.
She is currently at work on a book about provost marshals and civilians in the occupied border states during the Civil War. This project reveals how civilians and the army created and contested occupation in the border states during the American Civil War.
Biography
Dr. Holm received her PhD from Columbia University in 2010 and spent a year as at Schwartz Postdoctoral Fellow at the New School and The New-York Historical Society. She joined ·¬ÇÑÉçÇø in 2011. She served as the Center's Interim Director from 2020 to 2021, and in 2022, she became the director of the Center for Civil War Research.
Publications
2017, Louisiana State University Press
Evangelicals, Loyalty, and Sectionalism in the Civil War Era
From the publisher:
In the decades before the Civil War, the three largest evangelical denominations diverged sharply over the sinfulness of slavery. This division generated tremendous local conflict in the border region, where individual churches had to define themselves as being either northern or southern. In response, many border evangelicals drew upon the “doctrine of spirituality,” which dictated that churches should abstain from all political debate. Proponents of this doctrine defined slavery as a purely political issue, rather than a moral one, and the wartime arrival of secular authorities who demanded loyalty to the Union only intensified this commitment to “spirituality.” Holm contends that these churches’ insistence that politics and religion were separate spheres was instrumental in the development of the ideal of the nonpolitical southern church.
Education
Ph.D. History, Columbia University in the City of New York (2010)
M.P.H. History, Columbia University in the City of New York (2006)
M.A. History, Columbia University in the City of New York (2004)
Latest News
Harry Owens Collection boosts acquisition of rare documents for global research.
Philanthropy
/ Research News
OXFORD, Miss. – Researchers from around the world will have more opportunities to broaden their understanding of Mississippi and the surrounding region during the Civil War, thanks to the new Harry Owens Civil War Archival Collection at ·¬ÇÑÉçÇø.
-
Research News -
Alumni News / Philanthropy