Steven E. Woodworth (born January 28, 1961) is an American historian specializing in studies of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. He has written numerous books concerning the Civil War, and as a professor has taught classes on the Civil War, the

Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

, and military history.

Career

Steven E. Woodworth was born in Ohio on January 28, 1961 and spent most his early life in Illinois. He graduated from

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

in 1982 with a B.A. in history. He received his Ph.D. in 1987 at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

. Woodworth served as a professor at

Oklahoma Wesleyan University Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) is a private university of the Wesleyan church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 2018, the school had 1006 undergraduate students, with approximately 600 of those on its main campus in Bartlesville. History Okl ...

Bartlesville, Oklahoma Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Can ...

, and at

Toccoa Falls College Toccoa Falls College is a private Christian college in Toccoa Falls, Georgia. The campus occupies , bordering the Chattahoochee National Forest and is home to Toccoa Falls, a high waterfall. It is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary ...

in Toccoa Falls, Georgia, where he taught a wide variety of history courses, including on life in ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

. He began working as a professor at

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

in 1997. He has taught courses there on the

Old South Geographically, the U.S. states known as the Old South are those in the Southern United States that were among the original Thirteen Colonies. The region term is differentiated from the Deep South and Upper South. From a cultural and social s ...

, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Woodworth is a firm believer in the strategic importance of the sometimes-overlooked Western Theater of the American Civil War. In ''Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West,'' he wrote: Writing in the Journal of American History, Woodworth derided the 2003 Civil War film Gods and Generals, based on

Jeff Shaara Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Shaara (born February 21, 1952) is an American novelist and the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara. Biography Jeffrey Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. He graduated f ...

's 1998

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

of the same name, as a modern-day telling of

Lost Cause The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. First ...

mythology. Woodworth called the movie "the most pro-Confederate film since ''Birth of a Nation'', a veritable celluloid celebration of slavery and treason." He summed up his reasons for disliking the movie by saying: Woodworth criticized the portrayal of slaves as being "generally happy" with their condition. He also criticizes the relative lack of attention given to the motivations of Union soldiers fighting in the war. He excoriates the film for allegedly implying, in agreement with Lost Cause mythology, that the South was more "sincerely Christian." Woodworth concludes that the film, through "judicial omission," presents "a distorted view of the Civil War."

Selected works

The following are books written by Woodworth:Steven E. Woodworth
''Organization of American Historians.'' Web. Retrieved March 27, 2016. * * ''Davis and Lee at War (1995) * ''Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns'' (1998) * ''While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers'' (2001) * ''Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign'' (2003) * ''Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865'' (2005) * ''Manifest Destinies: Westward Expansion and the Civil War'' (2010) * ''This Great Struggle: America's Civil War'' (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodworth, Steven E. 1961 births American male non-fiction writers American military writers Historians of the American Civil War Living people Rice University alumni Oklahoma Wesleyan University faculty