author
John A. Carpenter
Drawn to the Civil War from an early age, this American historian built a career exploring Reconstruction and the lives of major 19th-century figures. His books on Oliver Otis Howard and Ulysses S. Grant helped bring that turbulent era into clearer focus.
1 Audiobook
The Star-Spangled Banner
by John A. Carpenter
About the author
John A. Carpenter was an American historian, professor, and public speaker who specialized in the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. Born in Boonton, New Jersey, in 1921, he studied at Harvard University, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and later earned his master's degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University.
He taught at Washington and Jefferson College before joining Fordham University in 1965, where he served on the history faculty and later chaired the department. His research centered on the people and institutions that shaped postwar America, and he received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society for work on the Freedmen's Bureau.
Carpenter also shared history beyond the classroom through lectures and television work. He published biographies of Oliver Otis Howard and Ulysses S. Grant, and his papers are preserved at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.