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Dr. White wins Hay-Nicolay Prize

(Newport News, Va.) - On March 20, 2010, Dr. Jonathan W. White was awarded the Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize, which is given jointly by the Abraham Lincoln Institute and the Abraham Lincoln Association.  The award was presented by Dr. Joan E. Cashin of Ohio State University at the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s annual Lincoln Symposium at the National Archives building in College Park, Maryland.  Dr. White’s dissertation, “‘To Aid Their Rebel Friends:’ Politics and Treason in the Civil War North,” was selected as the best recent dissertation related to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era.  The award, which is given annually, comes with a $5000 cash prize.

Dr. White is a postdoctoral fellow at Christopher Newport University’s Center for American Studies and is a visiting assistant professor at CNU’s Department of Leadership and American Studies.  He has advance contracts with LSU Press to publish two books from his dissertation.  The first book will focus on an 1861 treason case, Ex parte Merryman, and Abraham Lincoln’s exercise of presidential war powers during the Civil War.  The second book will focus on the political views of Union soldiers during the election of 1864.  Dr. White also plans to publish a third book based on his dissertation research, focusing on how treason was defined and punished during and after the Civil War.