Michael Chesson

Ph.D., Harvard University

Born in Richmond, capital of the Old Dominion and of the Confederate States of America, a stone's throw from the mansion occupied by Jefferson Davis and his family during the Civil War, my childhood in the post-World War II South saw the end of Jim Crow, and then Massive Resistance, followed by the Civil Rights movement and school desegregation. I grew up outside Richmond, and in a company town, Newport News, home to the world's largest shipyard and close to a number of military bases in the Hampton Roads area. I attended the College of William and Mary, graduating in 1969 with high honors in history. After active duty in the U. S. Navy, 1970-71, I began my graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University in 1972 under the direction of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Herbert Donald, following him to Harvard, and earning the Ph.D. in American history in 1978.

I came to the Harbor Campus of the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 1978, won early promotion to associate professor in 1984, and was department chair, 1996-98. I have been a full professor since 1996, and am an active historical consultant. In addition to both parts of the American survey, I teach advanced courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Old South, and American slavery, as well as graduate and undergraduate seminars.

I retired from the U. S. Naval Reserve as a captain (0-6) in 2005, and usher at my church

Areas of Special Interest
Civil War and Reconstruction, the Old South, and American slavery

Contact Information

Office: McCormack 4-640

Phone: 617-287-6887

E-mail: michael.chesson@umb.edu

Office Hours

Tues, Thurs 2:00-3:30 and by appointment

Professor Chesson's Current Curriculum Vitae

Professor Chesson's Personal Website

Representative Publications
Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card, lead author Sheldon M. Stern (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2003)

J. Franklin Dyer: The Journal of a Civil War Surgeon
(University of Nebraska Press, 2003)

Exile in Richmond: The Confederate Journal of Henri Garidel, translated by Leslie J. Roberts (University Press of Virginia, 2001)

Richmond After the War, 1865-1890 (Library of Virginia, 1981)

"A Chain of Weak Links: The Opening Months of the Civil War," University of Nebraska Press, 2007, lead title in multivolume series, Great Campaigns of the Civil War (Under contract)