Dr. Huebner is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Teaching and Writing:
Confronting our Past without Losing Faith in America
As I begin my twenty-ninth year at 星空无限传媒, I continue to live out my calling to teach and write about the history of the United States.
My work as a historian reflects my deep belief in the need for Americans to confront the difficult and disturbing aspects of our past. As one who has spent his career studying (and living in) the American South, I believe that historians need to reveal and explain, with honesty and clarity, the injustice and oppression that has played such a part in the history of the region鈥攖he dehumanization associated with slavery during the antebellum period, as well as the racial intimidation and violence that prevailed during the era of Jim Crow. That鈥檚 why I teach a range of courses on the South and the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, and it鈥檚 why I have written about such topics as the law of slavery, the pro-slavery ideology of nineteenth-century southern jurists, and the Dred Scott decision. And it鈥檚 why my students and I worked in 2017-2018 to erect a at the site of Nathan Bedford Forrest鈥檚 antebellum slave mart in Memphis, an effort that garnered the attention of a as well as the . We must confront the horrific aspects of our past.
At the same time, my work also rests on the assumption that American ideals and institutions, as imperfect as they have been in practice, are still our best hope for the preservation and advancement of liberty. I offer courses on the history of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the history of the Supreme Court, and in these classes I challenge my students to critically examine how the definition of liberty has evolved over time. My 2016 book,a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, specifically shows how African Americans advocated an agenda of freedom during wartime鈥攈ow they sought not just emancipation, but the full panoply of rights they believed they were guaranteed under the Declaration of Independence. These continued attempts to claim America鈥檚 heritage of liberty鈥擨 call it 鈥渂lack constitutionalism鈥濃攈elped to bring about a constitutional revolution.
Such moments of constitutional change, whether through popular mobilization, constitutional amendment, or judicial decision, show that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, can, in Frederick Douglass鈥檚 words, 鈥済ive us a platform broad enough, and strong enough, to support the most comprehensive plans for the freedom and elevation of all the people of this country.鈥 In other words, I think it鈥檚 possible for us as a nation to confront the ugliness of our past without losing faith in America. Confronting our past鈥攔ather than erasing or ignoring it鈥攎akes us a better, stronger people, and it allows us to hold our institutions accountable, in order to aspire to the 鈥渕ore perfect Union鈥 that the founders envisioned.
Teaching and writing are mutually reinforcing. My teaching reflects my enthusiasm for and commitment to examining the complexity of the American experience. In 2004, I won the Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Teaching at 星空无限传媒, and in 2011, my 鈥淪upreme Court in U.S. History鈥 class was featured on 鈥淟ectures in History,鈥 aired by C-SPAN. My writing, I hope, reflects this passion as well, as I attempt to address not only my scholarly peers but also a public audience. Over the years, my pieces have appeared in the , , and the , as well as the Memphis . Finally, I serve as Chair of the Board of Editors of the , which seeks to educate the public about the history of the nation鈥檚 highest court.
Selected Publications
Books
(Lawrence, Kas.: University Press of Kansas, 2016).
[Edited with Kermit L. Hall], , 2nd ed. (New York, Cengage, 2009)
. (Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-CLIO, 2003)
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999).
Journal Articles, Book Chapters and Review Essays
Civil War History, 69 (2023), 42-75.
Journal of Supreme Court History, 45 (2020), 215-235.
鈥淪helby Foote, Memphis, and the Civil War in American Memory,鈥 Southern Cultures, 21 (2015), 13-27. Co-authored with Madeleine McGrady.
鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Journal of American History, 97 (June 2010), 39-62.
鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Albany Government Law Review, 3 (2010), 615-643.
鈥淟awyer, Litigant, Leader: John Marshall and His Papers 鈥 A Review Essay,鈥&苍产蝉辫;American Journal of Legal History, 48 (July, 2006), 314-326. (Review essay of Hobson, et al, eds. The Papers of John Marshall, v. 1-12).
鈥淛udicial Independence in an Age of Democracy, Sectionalism, and War, 1835-1865,鈥 in James W. Ely, Jr., ed., A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2002, 61-98.
"The Roots of Fairness: State v. Caesar and Slave Justice in Antebellum North Carolina," in Christopher Waldrep and Donald Nieman, eds., Local Matters: Race, Crime, and Justice in the Nineteenth-Century South, (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2001), 29-52.
"Campus, Community, and Civil Rights: Remembering Memphis and Southwestern in 1968鈥揂 Panel Discussion," edited and transcribed with Benjamin Houston, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 58 (Spring, 1999), 70-87.
"Judge John Hemphill, the Homestead Exemption, and the 鈥楾aming鈥 of the Texas Frontier," Western Legal History, 11 (Winter/Spring, 1998), 65-85.
Journal of Supreme Court History, (1995), 19-30.
"The Consolidation of State Judicial Power: Spencer Roane, Virginia Legal Culture, and the Southern Judicial Tradition," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 102 (January, 1994), 47-72.
"Encouraging Economic Development: Joseph Henry Lumpkin and the Law of Contract, 1846-1860,"Journal of Southern Legal History, 1 (Fall/Winter, 1991), 357-375.
"Joseph Henry Lumpkin and Evangelical Reform in Georgia: Temperance, Education and Industrialization, 1830-1860," Georgia Historical Quarterly, 75 (Summer, 1991), 254-274.