JOINED THE DEPARTMENT

1987

Kenneth J. Winkle, Sorensen Professor of American History, received his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and specializes in 19th century U.S. political, social, cultural, and military history. Three of his books - The Politics of Community: Migration and Politics in Antebellum Ohio, The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln, and The Oxford Atlas of the Civil War - received the Allan Sharlin Award of the Social Science History Association, the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award, and the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award, respectively. He has published extensively in The Journal of Social History, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Civil War History, The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Social Science History, History Teacher, Reviews in American History, and other publications. His contribution to the new Concise Lincoln Library, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, is in press. His most recent project is Lincoln's Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC published in Fall 2012.

CV

TEACHING

History 189H University Honors Seminar
History 110 American History to 1877
History 201 American History to 1877
History 201H American History to 1877 (Honors)
History 202 American History after 1877
History 202H American History after 1877 (Honors)
History 288 Introduction to Historical Methods
History 395H University Honors Seminar
History 397/897 Introduction to Quantitative History
History 442/842 Antebellum America, 1800-1850
History 445/845 The Civil War and Reconstruction
History 446/846 America in “The Gilded Age”
History 447/847 Demographic History of the U.S. History
447/847 Family History of the U.S.
History 450 Capstone Course
History 488 The Historian's Craft
History 900 Introduction to Historical Study
Hist/Eng/ModL 918 Interdisciplinary Seminar in 19th Century Studies
Hist/Eng/ModL 919 Introduction to 19th Century Studies
History 941 Problems in American History
History 942 Research in American History
University Academy 361 American Society and Culture in the Civil War Era

DIGITAL PROJECTS

Civil War Washington

SELECTED ARTICLES

• “‘An Unladylike Profession’: Mary Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness,” in Michael Burkhimer and Frank Williams, ed., The Mary Lincoln Enigma (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), 82-111. 
• “Lincoln’s Formative Years in New Salem,” Illinois History Teacher 16 (Volume 1, 2009), 2-15. 
• “The Freeport Debate,” Lincoln in Illinois: Commemorating the Bicentennial of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield: Abraham Presidential Library, 2009), 36-37. 
• “The Middle Class Marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln,” in Joseph Fornieri and Sara Gabbard, eds., Abraham Lincoln’s America (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2008), 94-114. 
• With Benjamin G. Rader, "Baseball's Great Hitting Barrage . . . Re-Examined,” Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, 17 (Fall 2008), 70-96. 
• “Lincoln in Washington,” Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America (Springfield: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 2008), 23-28. 
• “‘Paradox Though It May Seem’: Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and Antislavery before the Civil War,” in Brian Dirck, ed., Lincoln Emancipated: The President and the Politics of Race (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007), 8-28.
• With Allan G. Bogue and Brian Q. Cannon, “Oxen to Organs: Chattel Credit in Springdale Town, 1849-1900,” Agricultural History, 77 (Summer 2003), 420-52.
• With Benjamin G. Rader, “Baseball’s Great Hitting Barrage of the 1990s,” Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, 10 (Spring 2002), 1-17. 
• “Bison: The Past, Present, and Future of the Great Plains,” Great Plains Quarterly, 21 (Spring 2001), 99-100. 
• “‘The Great Body of the Republic’: Abraham Lincoln and the Idea of a Middle West,” in The American Midwest: Essays in Regional History, ed. Andrew R. L. Cayton and Susan Gray (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 111-22.
• “Abraham Lincoln, Self-Made Man,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 21 (Summer 2000), 1-16.

BOOKS

• Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2012). 
• Abraham and Mary Lincoln (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011). 
• Study Guide for Pauline Maier, et al., Inventing America, Vol. I, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). 
• With Steven Woodworth, Oxford Atlas of the Civil War (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 2004). Winner of the Society for Military History’s Distinguished Book Award for Outstanding Contribution to Military History, 2005; History Book Club “Editor’s Choice.” 
• Study Guide for Pauline Maier, et al., Inventing America, Vol. I (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002). 
• The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Taylor Publishers/Rowman and Littlefield, 2001). Winner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award ($5,000 prize for best book on Lincoln published in 2001). 
• Bison Books Edition of Ida M. Tarbell, Abraham Lincoln and His Ancestors (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), Introduction. 
• The Politics of Community: Migration and Politics in Antebellum Ohio (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988). Winner of Allan Sharlin Award of the Social Science History Association ($500 prize for outstanding book employing social science methods published in 1988).

CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES

• “’Scapegoat for Both North and South’: Mary Lincoln as First Lady,” OAH Community College Workshop, 2012.
• “President Lincoln’s Legacies,” Homestead National Monument, 2012.
• “Compensated Emancipation in the District of Columbia,” National Archives (Washington), 2012.
• “Abraham and Mary Lincoln,” Abraham Lincoln Book Shop (Chicago), 2012. 
• “Civil War Washington,” American Historical Association, 2012. 
• “Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC,” Cyfair Conference, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” 2011 
• “Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC,” District of Columbia Historical Studies Conference, 2011 (keynote address). 
• “Digital Perspectives on Civil War Washington,” District of Columbia Historical Studies Conference, 2011. 
• “Lincoln and the Frontier Republic,” Society for the History of the Early American Republic, 2009 (keynote address). 
• “The Middle Class Marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln,” Tillamook County (Oregon) Historical Society, 2009 (OAH Distinguished Lecture). 
• “Citizen of Springfield,” Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College, 2008. 
• “By Himself at New Salem: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln,” Western Illinois University, 2007 (OAH Distinguished Lecture). 
• “The Middle Class Marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln,” Douglas County Historical Society, Lawrence, Kansas, 2007 (OAH Distinguished Lecture). 
• “The Great Body of the Republic: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Plains,” Minden, Nebraska, Public Library, 2007 (“Forever Free” Traveling Exhibit). 
• “‘Sisters in Grief’: The Widowhood of Queen Victoria and Mary Lincoln,” North American Victorian Studies Association, 2006. 
• With Benjamin G. Rader, "Baseball's Great Hitting Barrage . . . Re-Examined,” Nine Spring Training Conference, 2006. 
• “‘A Literal Wilderness’: Abraham Lincoln in Indiana,” Abraham Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, National Park Service, 2005.
• “‘Miserable Picuyane Arguments’: Lincoln and the Election of 1864,” Civil War Roundtable of Des Moines, 2004. 
• “Citizen Lincoln,” The Annual Lincoln Colloquium, 2004. 
• “‘Whither We Are Tending’: Lincoln’s Illinois as a House Divided,” Setting the Prairies on Fire: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Perspective (Ottawa, Illinois), 2002. 
• “Abraham Lincoln, from Springfield to Gettysburg,” Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, 2001.
• “‘My Political Education’: Lessons Lincoln Learned in Springfield,” The Annual Lincoln Colloquium, 2001. 
• “An American Journey: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln,” Abraham Lincoln Institute, 2000. 
• With Benjamin G. Rader, “A New Game: The 1990s Hitting Barrage,” National Association for the Advancement of Sports History, 2000.

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS

• Distinguished Lecturer, Organization of American Historians, 2005-. 
• Society for Military History’s Distinguished Book Award for Outstanding Contribution to Military History for Oxford Atlas of the Civil War, 2005. 
• Editor’s Choice, History Book Club, November 2004, for Oxford Atlas of the Civil War. 
• Thomas C. Sorensen Professorship of American History, UNL, 2004. 
• Anna Chaikin Sorensen Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities, UNL, 2004. 
• College Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, UNL, 2004. 
• Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award (best book on Lincoln published in 2001), 2002. 
• Finalist, Lincoln Prize (best book on Civil War or Lincoln published in 2001), 2002. 
• UNL Parents Association “Recognition Award for Contributions to Students,” 2000-2001.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

• National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant; selected for “We the People” designation. 
• Arts and Humanities Enhancement Fund Grant, Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009-10. 
• Arts and Humanities Enhancement Fund Grant, Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007-08. 
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Scholarly Information Resources, Council on Libraries and Information Resources, 2005-06, co-applicant through CDRH.

EXPERTISE

U.S. History (especially 19th Century and Civil War Era) Biography;
Quantitative History;
Family History