Cimprich, John 1949- (John V. Cimprich)

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Cimprich, John 1949- (John V. Cimprich)

PERSONAL:

Born June 26, 1949, in Middletown, OH; son of John V., Sr. (a welder) and Angela (a secretary) Cimprich; married Vickie Hucker (a proofreader), June 22, 1985. Ethnicity: "Slovak and German." Education: Thomas More College, A.B., 1971; Ohio State University, M.A., 1973, Ph.D., 1977. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Swimming, hiking, travel, reading.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY 41017; fax: 859-344-3342. E-mail—cimpricj@thomasmore.edu.

CAREER:

Ohio State University, Columbus, lecturer in history, 1977-79; Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, began as instructor, became visiting assistant professor of history, 1980-85; Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY, 1985—, began as lecturer, became professor of history.

MEMBER:

Society of Civil War Historians, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, Phi Alpha Theta.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellowship in historical editing, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, 1979-80; grant from Phi Alpha Theta, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Slavery's End in Tennessee, 1861-1865, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL), 1985.

Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2005.

Contributor to books, including The Moment of Decision: Biographical Essays on American Character and Regional Identity, edited by Randall M. Miller and John R. McKivigan, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1994; African American Life in the Post-Emancipation South, 1861-1900, edited by Donald G. Nieman, Garland Publishing (New York, NY), 1994; Appalachia in Black and White: Race Relations in the Nineteenth-Century Mountain South, edited by John Inscoe, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2000; and Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era, edited by John David Smith, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 2002. Contributor to periodicals, including North and South, Journal of Negro History, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Historian, Journal of American History, and Civil War History.

SIDELIGHTS:

John Cimprich once told CA: "In the second grade, a book of stories about woodland Indian life gave me a deep and broad-ranging interest in the earlier parts of American history. Later in grade school the Civil War Centennial focused most of that interest. Graduate training in history confirmed a love of research as well as a desire to share the results and my thoughts. The profession's mainstream advocates trying to understand human behavior and to be detached. With an immigrant father, probably no maternal ancestors in the Civil War, and long residencies in both North and South, I have no vested interest in either side of the war. The civil rights movement and my religion have had a humanitarian influence on my writing. While my interests have always ranged broadly, the civil rights movement made race relations a special concern in my work. The Vietnam War, besides making my treatment of warfare more sober, placed it in a social and political context. Following in these veins, my recent work examines the Fort Pillow massacre and places it in the larger context of the Civil War's major themes.