Congratulations to William Blair, Walter L. And Helen P. Ferree Professor of Middle American History and Director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center, Penn State.
On Friday, November 9, the Society of Civil War Historians recognized Bill’s service to the society with their lifetime achievement award. President Nina Silber and society officers Jim Marten and Steve Engle presented Bill with the award during the organization’s Tom Watson Brown Book Award dinner at the Southern Historical Association’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Since the society’s revival in 2006, the Richards Center has served as its organizational home, planning the biennial conferences and the annual Watson Brown Book Award dinners. In that time, the society’s membership has risen from fewer than 200 to approximately 650, and the Journal of the Civil War Era, which Bill founded in 2011 as the society’s official journal, has established itself as a leading academic periodical in its field.