About Kevin

Kevin M. Levin is an award-winning historian, educator, and blogger and the author of four books on the history and memory of the Civil War Era.

His forthcoming book, A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw is the first biography of this famous Union officer to be published in 25 years.

This biography traces Shaw’s transformation from a rebellious son into one of the Civil War’s most celebrated heroes. It also reveals afresh through Shaw’s eyes the sacrifice and service of the African American men who fought and died for their freedom. Though Shaw never fully reconciled his own racial prejudices, Levin shows how the Civil War changed the young colonel as it did the nation.

Kevin is also the author of Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, which won the The Eugene Feit Award for Excellence in Civil War Scholarship from The New York Military Affairs Symposium and Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder. He is also the editor of Interpreting the Civil War at Museums and Historic Sites.

An honorary fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Kevin is the author of the popular blog/newsletter Civil War Memory, which he began in 2005. He has been interviewed in major newspapers on a wide range of issues surrounding the ongoing debate about the history and memory of the Civil War era.

His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, Slate, History News Network, and Smithsonian.

Kevin is a much sought after tour guide and has worked with history teachers through professional development programs at the National Park Service, the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, Ford’s Theatre, Massachusetts Historical Society, Georgia Historical Society, and the American Civil War Museum.

Before retiring from teaching in 2019, Kevin taught U.S. History at high schools in Virginia and Massachusetts. He earned his BA in history and philosophy from William Paterson College, an MA in philosophy from the University of Maryland at College Park and MA in history from the University of Richmond.

Born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Kevin now lives with his wife, two cats, and dog Otis in Boston.