Rate My Professor Brian Jordan

Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan serves as Associate Professor of Civil War History and Chair of the Department of History at Sam Houston State University, a position he has held since September 2020, following promotions from Assistant Professor roles since joining the institution in August 2015. Previously, he was Lecturer in Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College from 2014 to 2015, Instructor from 2012 to 2014, and Adjunct Professor of History at Messiah College. Jordan earned his Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 2013, with a dissertation titled “Embattled Memories: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War,” which received the university-wide John Addison Porter Prize and the George W. Egleston Prize for the best U.S. History dissertation. He also holds an M.Phil. and M.A. from Yale (2012) and a B.A. summa cum laude in History and Civil War Era Studies from Gettysburg College (2009), where he was class valedictorian, Phi Beta Kappa inductee, and recipient of multiple history awards including the Charles Glatfelter Phi Beta Kappa Prize and Jeffrey Pierce Memorial Award.

Jordan's academic interests center on the American Civil War era, with specializations in Union veterans' post-war ordeals, trauma, memory, Reconstruction, and military history. His seminal book, Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War (Liveright, 2016), earned a Pulitzer Prize finalist nomination in History, the Governor John Andrew Award from the Union Club of Boston, and selection for the Military Book Club. Other major publications include A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment's Civil War (Liveright, 2022), Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves, co-edited with Jonathan W. White (University of Georgia Press, 2023), and forthcoming titles such as Crucible of the Republic: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Civil War (W.W. Norton, 2025), A Glorious Victory: The Battle of South Mountain (Savas Beatie, 2024), and An Unspeakable Calamity: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Savas Beatie, 2024). He has received further honors including Yale fellowships, Civil War Trust grants, Phi Alpha Theta Best Chapter Awards as co-advisor, and SHSU teaching award nominations. Jordan contributes to public history through extensive lectures, C-SPAN appearances, battlefield tours, and editorial work on collections like Intriguing Possibilities (Savas Beatie, 2022).