Craig Simpson

Associate Professor
PhD, Stanford University, 1974

Research Interests

Professor Simpson is a specialist in nineteenth century American history, with a particular interest in the South.

Awards

Craig Simpson was the recipient of the 2004-2005 Bank of Nova Scotia, UWO Alumni Association and the University Students' Council Award of Excellence for Undergraduate Teaching

Publications

Reynard Book Cover
Showdown in Virginia: The 1861 Convention and the Fate of the Union  (The University of Virginia Press, 2010) (Co-editor).

Review

"Showdown in Virginia will make accessible to a much broader audience than before perhaps the most important body of primary source material about the breakup of the Upper South in 1861.  These were the final months of what would later be called the antebellum era, and it is in looking at the proceedings from that perspective-of being on the eve of a great national calamity without knowing what shape it would take-that gives them immense poignancy.  By examining the words of the Convention, the modern reader can glimpse the uncertainty, anxiety, and hope that Virginians felt in the spring of 1861." -- Nelson D. Lankford, author of Cry Havoc! The Crooked Road to Civil War, 1861 and editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography


A Good Southerner: The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 1985).

Editorial Review

Wise (1806-1876) was extremely active on the Virginia and national political scene from the early 1830s to the mid-1860s, drawing popular support because of his projection of hopefulness and energy. Regarded as eccentric, Wise is given, in this study, an interpretation that finds consistency in his life-long controversial and impulsive behavior. Simpson stresses Wise's ambivalent attitude toward slaves and slave-holding, authority and authority figures, and Virginia and the United States.


Secession Debated: Georgia's Showdown in 1860 (Oxford University Press, 1992). (Co-Editor).

Review

"This excellent selection of documents gets us into the guts of the debate over secession, as manifested in a pivotal state that boasted some of the ablest political leaders in the South. And it contains a big bonus. Read with discernment, the arguments reveal much about the ways of viewing great social and politcal issues that could serve us well today." -- Eugene D. Genovese, The University Center in Georgia


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