Adam H Domby
Adam Domby is a historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction. His first book, The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory (University of Virginia Press, 2020), examines the role of lies and exaggeration, in the creation of Lost Cause narratives of the war, as well as their connections to white supremacy. Looking at pension fraud, Confederate monument dedications, and other myths reveals that much of our understanding of the Civil War remains influenced by falsehoods and racism.
Domby has written on a variety of topics including prisoners of war, guerrilla warfare, and genealogy. His current book project At War with Itself, focuses on southerners fighting their neighbors during the American Civil War and examines the legacy of those local fights that civil wars inevitably create. His research centers on the role these conflicts played in three divided southern communities during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Close examination of the social dynamics of these southern communities reveals new insights into why the Confederacy lost, why Reconstruction ended the way it did, and the distinctiveness of southern society, culture, and politics.
He is also currently researching, with Dr. Shari Rabin, a biography of the nineteenth-century rabbi conman. Through the misadventures of one man, the project will examine various aspects of the second half of the nineteenth century including political culture and corruption, Unionism, and American Judaism.
Previous to his arrival at Auburn, Domby was an assistant professor of history at the College of Charleston.
Research Interests
Civil War and Reconstruction, historical memory
Education
- PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- BA, Yale University
Source: Auburn University