Most of us today think of the Civil War in terms of clear and defined boundaries between the slave states of Kentucky and Missouri and the free states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas. But in his latest book, University of Cincinnati Professor Christopher Phillips explores the more ambiguous and fluid cultures and attitudes of what are referred to as the "Middle Border" states during the Civil War era.
"The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border" has been awarded multiple honors, most recently the Tom Watson Brown Prize, given annually to the “best book published on the causes, conduct, and effects, broadly defined, of the Civil War.”
Dr. Christopher Phillips joins us to discuss his book and life in the Middle Border states during the Civil War.