Contact: Tyler Powell

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Three Mississippi State historians will sign copies of their recently published books at Barnes & Noble at MSU this Saturday [Feb. 23].

Department of History faculty members Mary Kathryn Barbier, William Anthony Hay and Andrew Lang will autograph and discuss their publications during the 3-5 p.m. event, which is open to all.

Alan Marcus, Department of History professor and head, said historians are “a people of the book,” who use writing to express themselves to the public, reaching people in all walks of life. 

“Through their work, the past comes alive. And by revealing the past, these historians serve to help inform the present and future,” Marcus said.

Barbier’s book, “Spies, Lies, and Citizenship: The Hunt for Nazi Criminals” (Potomac Books, 2017), is a 352-page work revealing information about infamous Nazis—including Andrija Artuković, Klaus Barbie and Arthur Rudolph—who were sheltered and protected in the United States and other countries, and attempts to bring them to justice. Kirkus online review service referred to Barbier’s work as “well-researched state secrets forced into the light of truth.”

Hay’s book, “Lord Liverpool: A Political Life” (Boydell Press, 2018), is a 296-page political biography which examines how the British prime minister, a defender of the 18th-century British constitution, adapted to the challenges of war, and how his efforts shaped and molded the transition from the Georgian to the Victorian era.  Called “a work of impeccable scholarship” by London Magazine, Hay’s work also received top reviews from the Wall Street Journal, New Criterion and National Review Online.

Lang’s book, “In the Wake of War: Military Occupation, Emancipation, and Civil War America” (LSU Press, 2017), highlights the challenging conditions of military occupation and the changing nature of American military practice during the Mexican-American War, Civil War and Reconstruction and also depicts how U.S. soldiers—white and black, volunteer and regular—responded to their unprecedented duties behind the lines during the Civil War era. The book received the Society of Civil War Historians’ Tom Watson Brown Book Award, given annually to the best book on the causes, conduct and consequences of the American Civil War.

MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,300 students, 300 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs and 25 academic majors offered in 14 departments. Complete details about the College of Arts and Sciences or the history department may be found at www.cas.msstate.edu or www.history.msstate.edu.  

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.