Don H. Doyle

About the Author

Don H. Doyle, author of The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War (Basic Books, 2015), is McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina.

Author Archive Page

Husbands, wives, and families sold indiscriminately to different purchasers, are violently separated; probably never to meet again. (Photo: NYPL Digital Collections)

Cornerstone of the Confederacy: Slavery and the Constitution

October 6, 2015By Don H. Doyle

For Europeans, it was Confederate slaveholders who defined the U.S. Constitution as anti-slavery.

Group of young white men turn a car on its side during Detroit riots of 1943

Rioting: An American Tradition

Looking at the rioters in Baltimore, or any other place, in isolation misses the point.

The Story of America in Twelve Cemeteries

Our Past is Written in Stone

Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day

Mothers’ Day did not start as a way to encourage people to be nice to their mothers, but as an impassioned effort by women to end war forever.

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

Exploring an important step toward the abolition of slavery in the United States

Bruce Gillers - October 13, 2021:
The Boy Scout Council in Chinle Arizona was the name of the [...]

Carolyn Marvin - February 11, 2021:
Example: no proof of any silk dress...part of the poem written later. [...]

KateThomas - December 8, 2020:
Thank you. This has given me a greater insight into the historian [...]

Michael C. Lucas - August 5, 2020:
The American Government did not make a deal for Forty Acres and [...]