author
Ella Lonn
1879–1962
A pioneering American historian, she brought fresh attention to overlooked sides of the Civil War, especially desertion, immigrant participation, and Reconstruction. Her work helped push the field beyond battles and generals toward the lives and choices of ordinary people.
1 Audiobook
Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1868
by Ella Lonn
About the author
Ella Victoria Lonn was an American historian whose scholarship focused on the Civil War and Reconstruction. Reliable reference sources describe her as a scholar of American history, and her books explored subjects such as desertion during the war, the experiences of foreigners in the conflict, and the postwar South.
She studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania, and later served as a professor of history at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work was influential enough that later historians still describe Desertion During the Civil War as a pathbreaking study.
Lonn also broke ground professionally. HistoryNet notes that in 1946 she became the first woman elected president of the Southern Historical Association, a sign of the respect she earned in a field that was long dominated by men.