American Rambler With Colin Woodward

Put your history hat on, y'all! Colin talks with John C. Rodrigue, one of his professors at LSU (back when Colin was a lowly grad student). John now teaches at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, but he's a Jersey guy, who studied at Rutgers and Columbia. He also has roots in Louisiana's Cajun country going back to early 1900s. John tells Colin about his academic road to studying Reconstruction, more specifically, examining the postwar years in the sugar parishes of Louisiana. John is the author of two books about the Reconstruction era. His latest, Lincoln and Reconstruction, was published in 2013. He talks with Colin not only about his own work, but his encounters with historians such as James Roark, Ira Berlin, and the infamous Eugene Genovese. He also discusses his new book project, which examines emancipation in the Mississippi Valley. What does John think about Woodrow Wilson? How does William Shakespeare sum up the southern planter class? Listen and find out!