Aaron Astor

Aaron Astor, Ph.D., (@AstorAaron) is Associate Professor of History at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. He is the author of the book, Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri, 1860-1872, published in 2012 and The Civil War Along Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau released in May 2015.  He has also written eleven articles for the award-winning New York Times Disunion series, addressing such topics as guerrilla warfare, battles and campaigns in the Western Theater, popular politics, emancipation and race, and regional identity in the Appalachian South.  He is currently working on a book project that explores the 1860 Presidential election as a grassroots phenomenon from the perspective of four distinct American communities.

At Maryville College, Dr. Astor teaches a variety of courses on United States history, from Colonial America to the present. He also participates in numerous historic preservation groups across Tennessee, including serving on the Board of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association and the East Tennessee Civil War Alliance. Astor earned his Ph.D. in History at Northwestern University in 2006 and his B.A. at Hamilton College in 1995.