Dr Rachel Williams

Dr Rachel Williams

Lecturer in American History

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Arts Cultures and Education
  • School of Humanities

Qualifications

  • BA (University of Cambridge)
  • MA (University of Nottingham)
  • PhD / DPhil (University of Nottingham)

Summary

Dr Rachel Williams teaches American history, with a particular focus on the social history of the 19th century.

She is author of Tabernacles in the Wilderness: The US Christian Commission on the Civil War Battlefront (2024) and co-editor, with Dr Ben Offiler, of American Philanthropy at Home and Abroad: New Directions in the History of Giving (2022). She served as Secretary of the British Association for American Studies between 2018 and 2023. She is currently working on a project about uses and meanings of military uniforms during and after the American Civil War.

Remember the Ladies: Women in America

The Fire Next Time: From Slavery to Civil Rights

The Civil War in History and Culture

The Health of the Nation: Medicine in America

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Book

Tabernacles in the Wilderness: The US Christian Commission on the Civil War Battlefront

Williams, R. (2024). Tabernacles in the Wilderness: The US Christian Commission on the Civil War Battlefront. Kent State University Press

Book Chapter

Heaping coals of fire on the enemy's head: The political uses of Christian benevolence in the Civil War

Williams, R. (2022). Heaping coals of fire on the enemy’s head: The political uses of Christian benevolence in the Civil War. In B. Offiler, & R. Williams (Eds.), American Philanthropy at Home and Abroad: New Directions in the History of Giving (17-32). Bloomsbury Publishing

Civil War Relief Agencies, the Union Soldier, and Healing the Union

Williams, R. (2014). Civil War Relief Agencies, the Union Soldier, and Healing the Union. In M. Tanrisal, & T. E. Tunç (Eds.), The Health of the Nation (39-52). Universitätsverlag Winter

Journal Article

Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family: by Sara Georgini, New York: Oxford University Press, 2019, Pp. 284, $34.95 (hbk), $21.59 (e-book), ISBN 9780190882587, ISBN 9780190882594

Williams, R. (2020). Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family: by Sara Georgini, New York: Oxford University Press, 2019, Pp. 284, $34.95 (hbk), $21.59 (e-book), ISBN 9780190882587, ISBN 9780190882594. American Nineteenth Century History, 21(2), 188-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664658.2020.1789345

Response to Deborah Willis, the Black Civil War Soldier: Conflict and Citizenship

Williams, R. (2017). Response to Deborah Willis, the Black Civil War Soldier: Conflict and Citizenship. Journal of American Studies, 51(2), 339-347. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875817000494

Research interests

Social and cultural history of the American Civil War

Material culture and histories of clothing

Religious philanthropy

Military masculinities

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

The Meaning of Civil War Uniforms

Funder

AHRC Arts & Humanities Research Council

Grant

£6,250.00

Started

1 June 2023

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Williams welcomes applications for supervision in the social and cultural history of 19th-century America, American reform and philanthropy, and American Christianity.

Membership/Fellowship of professional body

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2018

Member, Association of British American Nineteenth Century Historians

2016

British Association for American Studies

2014

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