David Silkenat

David Silkenat is the Richard J. Milbauer Chair of Southern History at the University of Florida. He is the author of four books, most recently Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South, which was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Frederick Douglass Prize. His 2011 book, Moments of Despair: Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina, won the North Caroliniana Society Book Award for the work that "makes a positive contribution and appears to have the best chance of standing the test of time as a classic volume of North Caroliniana." His 2016 book, Driven from Home: North Carolina's Civil War Refugee Crisis, also won the North Caroliniana Society Book Award, making Silkenat the first author to win the prize twice. His 2019 book, Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War, was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Silkenat's work has also received the William F. Holmes Award from the Southern Historical Association and the Harry E. Pratt Memorial Award from the Illinois State Historical Society.