Louis Masur is Board of Governors Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University. He is a cultural historian whose publications include books on Lincoln and the Civil War, capital punishment, the events of a single year, the first World Series, a transformative photograph, and a seminal rock ‘n’ roll album. His most recent work is The Sum of our Dreams: A Concise History of America (2020). Other books include Lincoln's Last Speech: Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion (2015), Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union (2012), and The Civil War: A Concise History (2011). Masur’s essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and Slate. He approaches culture as a text that must be unpacked and his courses draw on a range of primary sources—novels, memoirs, essays, images, movies, and music—and take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of American culture. Masur has been elected to membership of the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Society of American Historians. He can be reached at
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