Mailing Address:
SCHOOL OF H&SS
PENN STATE BEHREND
170 KOCHEL CENTER
4951 COLLEGE DRIVE
ERIE PA 16563
Biography
Joseph M. Beilein Jr. is a Civil War historian who specializes in guerrilla warfare, gender, material culture, and violence. He’s the author of Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri (2016) and the co-editor of The Civil War Guerrilla: Unfolding the Black Flag in History, Memory, and Myth (2015) and several articles on the guerrilla conflict during the Civil War. His evolving research agenda seeks to include the intersection of alcohol and manhood during the Civil War.
At Penn State Behrend, Beilein teaches courses on the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, Military History, and American History. Beilein has consulted on two episodes of TLC celebrity genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? with actresses
Courses Taught
- HIST 020, American Civilization to 1877
- HIST 130, Introduction to the Civil War Era, 1848 through 1877
Recent Conference Participation
- “’Nothing But Truth is History’: William E. Connelley, William H. Gregg, and the Pillaging of Guerrilla History,” Society of Civil War Historians Biennial Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, June 14-16, 2012.
- Missouri Secessionist Households, Chair, 53rd Annual Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, Missouri, April 15, 2011.
- Roundtable: Directions in Missouri’s Civil War History, Panelist, 53rd Annual Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, Missouri, April 14, 2011.
- “The Hired-Hand: William Clarke Quantrill, the Household, and Missouri’s Organic System of Warfare,” 7th Graduate Conference on History, University of Missouri, Department of History, April 16, 2010.
- “The Guerrilla Shirt: A Labor of Love in Missouri’s Civil War,” Suprea Utilitatem: Finding Artistry in Functionality, Graduate Student Symposium, Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Missouri, February 27, 2010.
Invited Talks and Other Presentations
- “The Guerrilla Shirt,” The Friends of the James Farm Annual Meeting, Jesse James Farm and Museum, Kearney, Missouri, June 9, 2012.
- “The Guerrilla Shirt: A Labor of Love and the Style of Rebellion in Civil War Missouri,” Border Wars Conference, Kansas City, November 11, 2011.
- “Guerrilla Men, Rebel Women, and Household War in Civil War Missouri,” University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, October 4, 2011.
- “Historian At War: William E. Connelley and the Creation of the Savage Guerrilla,” Border Wars Symposium, Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas, April 6-8, 2011.
Research Interests
Civil War, guerrilla warfare, gender, material culture, and alcohol.
Publications
Vision and Resilience: A Story of Remarkable Growth and Transformation at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College - May, 2024
A Man By Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill and the Search for American Manhood - September 1, 2023
Review of Rites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War by Lorien Foote, Civil War Book Review - 2022
Review of Common Men in the War for the Common Man by Verel Salmon, Erie Times-News
Review of Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy: The Civil Wars of John Kelso by Christopher Grasso, History: Reviews of New Books - October, 2022
The 1864 Invasion of Missouri - 2021
Review of The Women's Fight: The Civil War's Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation by Thavolia Glymph, Journal of American History - September 1, 2021
Householder and General: Lee's War as a Household War - 2020
The Guerrilla Household of Lizzie and William Gregg, Nursing Clio - November 9, 2020
William Gregg's Civil War - October, 2019
Review of ANDREW F. LANG. In the Wake of War: Military Occupation, Emancipation, and Civil War America, American Historical Review - June, 2019
Historical to a Fault: Gary Ross, Free State of Jones, and the (Eventual) Destruction of the Lost Cause - January, 2019
Ohio Valley History - October, 2018
The Terror of Kentucky: Sue Mundy's Highly Gendered War against Convention, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society - April, 2018
Whiskey, Wild Men, and Missouri's Guerrilla War - 2016
Extreme Civil War: Guerrilla Warfare, Environment, and Race on the Trans-Mississippi Frontier by Matthew M. Stith - October, 2016
Faces Like Devils: The Bald Knobber Vigilantes in the Ozarks. By Matthew J. Hernando, The Journal of the Civil War Era - September, 2016
Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri - June, 2016
The Guerrilla and the Historian: William H. Gregg, William E. Connelley, and the Pillaging of Guerrilla History - April, 2015
The Civil War Guerrilla: Unfolding the Black Flag in History and Myth - April, 2015
Collaborator: Matthew Hulbert, Co-Editor
The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History, by Louis Gerteis, Civil War History - March, 2014
The Guerrilla Shirt: A Labor of Love and the Style of Rebellion - September, 2013
Of Eyes and Teeth: The Trial of George Maddox, the Raid on Lawrence, and the Bloodstained Verdict of the Guerrilla War - August 19, 2013
Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri by James Erwin - April 10, 2013
Captain Joseph Boyce and the First Missouri Infantry, Civil War History - December, 2012
The Battle of Mine Creek: The Crushing End of the Missouri Campaign by Stalnaker, Jeffrey D. - October, 2012
The Guerrilla Shirt: A Labor of Love and the Style of Rebellion in Civil War Missouri, Civil War History - June, 2012
Financial Fraud and Geiger, Mark W, Guerrilla Violence in Missouri’s Civil War, 1861-1865, Civil War Monitor - December 21, 2011
Education
Ph D, American History/History, The University of Missouri
MA, American History/History, The University of Missouri
BA, American History/History, Kenyon College