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Kevin M. Levin

Kevin M. Levin is a historian and educator based in Boston. He has written and lectured widely on the Civil War era, historical memory, and public history. He is the author of Searching for Black Confederate Soldiers: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth and Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder, and editor of Interpreting the Civil War at Museums and Historic Sites. He blogs at Civil War Memory.

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Political cartoon depicting contrabands carrying cannons, oblivious to their exploitation by the U.S. Army.

Racism and the Limits of Imagination in the United States and the Confederacy

Why did it take so long for the U.S. Army to authorize the enlistment of Black men as soldiers?
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on December 1, 2024
The 54th Massachusetts regiment storming Fort Wagner.

Did Robert Gould Shaw Have to Volunteer the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts to Prove Their Bravery?

Questions linger about the assault on Fort Wagner, which took place on this day in 1863.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on July 18, 2024
Henry Grady’s Vision of a “New South.”

Civil War Memory, Reconciliation, and Social Media: A Cautionary Tale

The importance of contextualization and critical evaluation in historical analysis.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on December 26, 2023
Unionists in East Tennessee Swear Loyalty to the Union Flag in 1862.

Remembering Southern Unionists

Confederate monuments helped to erase the history of those white and black southerners who remained loyal and were willing to give their lives to save the United States.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on December 28, 2022
A vintage public school textbook on the history of Virginia.
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The Virginia History its State Board Doesn’t Want Students to Know

Our racial history is complex and important, but debates today are eliding entire chapters of it.
by Kevin M. Levin via Made By History on August 25, 2022

Why 'Glory' Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later

Newly added to Netflix, the Civil War movie reminds the nation that black Americans fought for their own emancipation.
by Kevin M. Levin via Smithsonian on September 14, 2020
Boston's Emancipation Memorial depicting a black man kneeling in front of Abraham Lincoln.

Black Bostonians Fought For Freedom From Slavery. Where Are The Statues That Tell Their Stories?

Contrary to the image of the kneeling slave, Black abolitionists did not wait passively for the "Day of Jubilee." They led the charge.
by Kevin M. Levin via WBUR on June 16, 2020

Richmond’s Confederate Monuments Were Used to Sell a Segregated Neighborhood

Real-estate developers used the statues to draw white buyers to a neighborhood where houses couldn't be sold “to any person of African descent.”
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on June 11, 2020

The University of North Carolina's Payout to the Confederate Lost Cause

The University of North Carolina agreed to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million—a sum that rivals the endowment of its history department.
by David W. Blight, Kevin M. Levin, W. Fitzhugh Brundage via The Atlantic on December 9, 2019
African American re-enactor dressed as a Confederate.
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How the Myth of Black Confederates Was Born

And how a handful of black Southerners helped perpetuate it after the Civil War.
by Kevin M. Levin via Made By History on July 17, 2019

The ‘Loyal Slave’ Photo That Explains the Northam Scandal

The governor’s yearbook picture, like many images before it, reinforces the belief that blacks are content in their oppression.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on February 13, 2019
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Encountering the Plantation Myth Where You'd Least Expect It

Well off Savannah's tourist trail, there's a replica of an antebellum plantation home in the middle of a public housing project.
by Kevin M. Levin on January 19, 2018
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The Future of our Confederate Monuments Rests With the Kids

The perspectives of older Americans have dominated the debate. It's time we pay more attention to what younger people have to say.
by Kevin M. Levin on November 30, 2017

Is Ron Chernow's Ulysses S. Grant biography "OK"?

On October 15th, a tweet by Bunk contributing editor Kevin Levin touched off this fascinating exchange between several historians on the subject of popular history. Among the topics it covered were novelty, craft, context... and the musical Hamilton.
by William Hogeland, Kevin M. Levin, Megan Kate Nelson, T. J. Stiles, Josh Feigenbaum, Meghan Roberts, Brooks Simpson via Twitter on October 16, 2017

Myth of Black Confederates Won't Go Away

Two South Carolina lawmakers dust off a familiar trope in an attempt to fight back against Confederate monument removals.
by Kevin M. Levin via Post and Courier on October 11, 2017
Ripped American flag flying next to the Texas flag.

In Texas, Even the Lies about the Confederacy Are Bigger

Republican House Speaker Joe Straus is calling for the removal of a Confederate plaque about the role of slavery in the Civil War.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on September 20, 2017
Baltimore Confederate monument.
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History vs. Memory

What professional historians do – and don't – have to offer communities struggling with the Confederate monuments in their midst.
by Kevin M. Levin on August 25, 2017

Why I Changed My Mind About Confederate Monuments

Empty pedestals can offer the same lessons about racism and war that the statues do.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on August 19, 2017

The Pernicious Myth of the ‘Loyal Slave’ Lives on in Confederate Memorials

Statues don’t need to venerate military leaders of the Civil War to promulgate false narratives.
by Kevin M. Levin via Smithsonian on August 17, 2017
Lincoln Memorial.

The Civil War Almost Didn't End Slavery

On the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, we should reflect on the arduous battle to rid the nation once and for all of the ‘peculiar institution.’
by Kevin M. Levin via The Daily Beast on June 26, 2017

Robert E. Lee Topples From His Pedestal

The Confederate general has long been seen, in the South and beyond, as embodying the virtues of the ideal man.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on May 19, 2017

What Richmond Has Gotten Right About Interpreting its Confederate History

Why hasn't Richmond faced the same controversies as New Orleans or Charlottesville?
by Kevin M. Levin via Smithsonian on May 18, 2017

9/11 and the Inevitability of Forgetting

The events of Sept. 11 are etched into the memories of those who were alive that day. As history shows, future generations will feel differently.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Daily Beast on September 9, 2016
The Liberty Place monument surrounded by streetcars and pedestrians in the early twentieth century.

Why the New Orleans Vote on Confederate Monuments Matters

The city council decides to remove four memorials that offered a distorted picture of the city’s past.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on December 17, 2015
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