Professor of History Patrick Rael delves into the recently released film The Free State of Jones with an essay in Muster that examines where it fits in the broader Civil War film tradition. Read Rael’s piece, “Right and Wrong in ‘The Free State of Jones’: Making Sense of the Civil War Film Tradition.”

Rael, a specialist in African-American history, is the author of several books, including the most recent Eighty-Eight Years: The Long Death of Slavery in the United States, 1777-1865 (University of Georgia Press, 2015), which explores the Atlantic history of slavery to understand the exceptionally long period of time it took to end chattel bondage in America.