Colin E. Woodward's Official Site

It’s not often that historians make the leap from interplanetary geology to the study of antebellum Virginia. But Dr. Miller is one such person. And maybe it makes sense that someone from southwestern Pennsylvania who did part of his education in West Virginia, would want to study the inner workings…

Some writers start young. Keith Ryan Cartwright is one of those. An early gift of a typewriter kept Keith busy while growing up in Wisconsin. And he hasn’t stopped writing since. In part one of this conversation (part two will appear when his book comes out this fall), Keith talks…

Sam Wilson, Jr., is the son of the late General Samuel Vaughan Wilson, a member of the World War II unit “Merrill’s Marauders,” Cold War spy, and commander in Vietnam. His father’s shadow falls long over his family, but Sam, Jr., had his own accomplished career in the military. He…

Writer and podcaster David Hill is the author of The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Spring’s, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice. Originally from Arkansas, he moved to New York to work as a union organizer but moved back to his…

A native of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Blake Ball originally wanted to be a musician. Then he got the history bug. He has a new book out and it’s his first, Charlie Brown’s America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts. He’s also the head of the history department at Huntingdon College in…

Josh Rothman has gone native. Originally from New York, he has lived in Alabama for a while, where he is the head of the history department at the University of Alabama. He has a new book, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America. Josh began his…

Edward Packard knows about choices. He went to Columbia Law School, but he never really wanted to be an attorney. He admits he was often “sleepwalking” through life before landing on an innovative idea for young readers. He eventually began writing full time, and many 80s kids (like Colin) can…

Colin often gets confused with Colin. And by that, we mean the author of Marching Masters is often thought of as an author of books about Maine and pirates. To clear things up, Colin Woodard is the Maine author and historian behind Republic of Pirates, The Lobster Coast, American Nations,…

Recorded on St. Patrick’s Day, Colin talks with historian Michael Bellesiles about our country reckoning with major issues such as gun violence, citizenship, and equality.  Michael is best known for his controversial book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, published in 2000. The book was the subject…

In part two of Colin’s talk with journalist Frank Smyth, Frank talks about his 2020 book, The NRA: The Unauthorized History. The history of the National Rifle Association begins in New York City in 1871 as a group made up of Union veterans and those interested in target shooting. Founded…