Persistence through Peril...A New Book Exams Southern Colleges that Continued Operations during the Civil War

The University Press of Mississippi recently announced upcoming availability of Persistence through Peril: Episodes of College Life and Academic Endurance in the Civil War South, edited by R. Eric Platt and Holly A. Foster.

The book provides detailed views of life at eleven institutions that remained open and maintained the mission of higher education during the Civil War. 

"Contributors tell these stories via the lived experiences of students, community members, professors, and administrators as they strove to keep their institutions going. Despite the large-scale cessation of many southern academies due to student military enlistment, resource depletion, and campus destruction, some institutions remained open for the majority or entirety of the war. These institutions—“The Citadel” South Carolina Military Academy, Mercer University, Mississippi College, the University of North Carolina, Spring Hill College, Trinity College of Duke University, Tuskegee Female College, the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute, Wesleyan Female College, and Wofford College—continued to operate despite low student numbers, encumbered resources, and faculty ranks stripped bare by conscription or voluntary enlistment."

Contributors to the book include: Christian K. Anderson, Marcia Bennett, Lauren Yarnell Bradshaw, Holly A. Foster, Tiffany Greer, Don Holmes, Donavan L. Johnson, Lauren Lassabe, Sarah Mangrum, R. Eric Platt, Courtney L. Robinson, David E. Taylor, Zachary A. Turner, Michael M. Wallace, and Rhonda Kemp Webb.

An ebook version is currently available or you can preorder a copy.