UNC Greensboro|Directory|Mark Elliott

Mark Elliott

Professor

History

Education

Ph.D., New York University, 2002
M.A., University of California, Riverside, 1993
B.A. in History/English, Duquesne University, 1991

Research Statement

My scholarship and current research focus on the history of human rights, humanitarianism and American nationalism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within this set of interests, the history and memory of Reconstruction have been my main area of publication. The abolition of slavery sparked a fundamental revision of American national identity and the rights that come with citizenship. I am especially interested in how conflicts over these issues played out from the period of Reconstruction into the 20th century.

Publications

cover of "Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson" — *Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil*
*War to Plessy v. Ferguson*, Oxford University Press, 2006.
*Winner of the Avery O. Craven Prize by the Organization of American Historians.

cover of "Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion W. Tourgée" — *Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion W. Tourgée*. Co-edited with John David Smith. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010.

cover of "Reconstruction Beyond 150: Reassessing the New Birth of Freedom" — “Reconstructing Nationalism: Charles Sumner, Human Rights, and American Exceptionalism” in
*Reconstruction Beyond 150: Reassessing the New Birth of Freedom*, edited by Vernon Burton and J. Brent Morris. University of Virginia Press, 2023.

cover of "Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age" — “’Our God-Given Mission’: The Legacy of Reconstruction and the Humanitarian Interventions of the 1890s” in Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age, edited by David Prior. Fordham University Press, 2021.

cover of "Reimagining the Republic: Race, Citizenship, and Nation in the Literary Work of Albion W. Tourgée" — “Afterward” for *Reimagining the Republic: Race, Citizenship, and Nation in the Literary Work of Albion W. Tourgée* and edited by Robert Levine and Sandra Gustafson. Fordham University Press, 2022.

cover of "Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles Over the Meaning of America's Most Tumultuous Era" — “The Lessons of Reconstruction: Debating Race and Expansionism in the 1890s” in *Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles Over the Meaning of America’s Most Tumultuous Era*, edited by Carole Emberton & Bruce E. Baker. Louisiana State University Press, 2017.

Courses Taught

HIS 200: Human Rights in Modern World History
HIS 217: The World in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1945
HIS 338: Civil War, Reconstruction, and Reunion, 1848-1896
HIS 339: War, Society, and Reform: America 1896-1945
HIS 411A: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing
HIS 426/526: The Civil War and Reconstruction
HIS 446/546: American Cultural History
HIS 702: Colloquium in American History, 1865-Present
HIS 723: Topics in 19th Century U.S. History

Doctoral Dissertations Directed

Robert Skelton, “The Collapse of Reconstruction in Florida: How Republicans Prolonged Reconstruction and Squandered African American Support.” in-progress.
Felton Foushee, “Forging A New Public Image: Representation & Black Intellectuals in the Second Founding 1845-1915.” In-progress.
Andrew Turner. “‘War is the Business of Youth:’ Youth Soldiers, Manhood, and their Enduring Civil War.” 2025.
Lynda Kellam. “Looking Across Empires: Sovereign Responsibility and the roots of ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ in Nineteenth Century Britain and the United States.” 2023.
Chris Davis. “Cross Purposes: American Missionaries and the U.S. Occupation of Haiti.” 2019.
James Hall. “The Last War of Honor: Manhood, Race, Gender, Class and Conscription in North Carolina during the First World War.” 2019.
Joseph Ross. “The Nuremberg Paradox: How the Trial of the Nazis Challenged American Support of International Human Rights Law.” 2018.
Christine Flood. “The Arbiters of Compromise: Sectionalism, Unionism and Secessionism in Maryland and North Carolina.” 2016.
John Kaiser. “Judicial Knight Errant: Walter Clark and the Long Progressive Era in North Carolina.” 2015.

Media Coverage

CSPAN interview on Color-Blind Justice
“America’s History of Protests and Where BLM Fits In” interviewed by Charles Ford, National Public Radio, WFDD
“Rethinking Controversial Monuments,” interviewed by Frank Morris National Public Radio, Weekend Edition. WFDD
Interviewed by Jennifer Levitz for “Daughters of Confederacy ‘Reeling’ from Memorial Removals” The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2017.
“Understanding the History of Confederate Monuments,” Local News, WFMY.
“How the U.S. Got So Many Confederate Monuments” for The History Channel.
Letter to the Editor, with Jeremy Rinker, “Budget Reductions Punish UNCG for Serving Disadvantaged Students.” Greensboro News and Record, March 3, 2023.
Letter to the Editor, with Lisa Levenstein, “UNCG’s Program Review is Flawed and Short-Sighted.” Greensboro News and Record, October 27, 2023.
Letter to the Editor, “On U.S. Exceptionalism: History Education vs. Indoctrination,” Raleigh News and Observer, December 13, 2014.