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Professor
462 Hamilton Hall
Office Hours: By appointment only
wbarney@email.unc.edu

Education

MA Columbia University, 1965
PhD Columbia University, 1971

Research Interests

Professor Barney’s research focuses on the nineteenth-century U.S., especially the antebellum South. He is currently researching a book on the cultural and economic politics of secession.

Some Notable Publications

  • The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Student Companion (Oxford University Press, 2001)
  • Battleground for the Union: The Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848–1877 (Prentice Hall, Inc., 1990)
  • Passage of the Republic: An Interdisciplinary History of Nineteenth Century America (D.C. Heath, 1987)
  • The Secessionist Impulse: Alabama and Mississippi in 1860 (Princeton University Press, 1974)
  • Flawed Victory: New Perspective on the Civil War (Rowman & Littlefield, 1975)
  • The Road to Secession: A New Perspective on the Old South (Praeger, 1972)

Graduate Students

Courses Taught (as schedule allows)

For current information about course offerings, click here.

  • HIST 127—United States History to 1865
  • HIST 128—United States History Since 1865
  • HIST 565—Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848–1877
  • HIST 834—The Middle Period, 1815–1860
  • HIST 840—Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860–1876