Robert E. May

After teaching American history at Purdue University for my entire career, I am now retired in the state of Washington and continuing to write and publish about the past, especially the Civil War era, and give public talks in person and virtually. While at Purdue, I taught courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. southern and military history, American territorial expansion, and other subjects and was very involved in teaching honors courses. I also developed a strong interest in Abraham Lincoln, which not only led to a course about his life and career but also my book Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the Tropics: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Future of Latin America, which was a final selection for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. In all, I have written, co-authored, and edited nine books, including the two Christmas books above.