Ann L. Tucker

Ann L. Tucker is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Georgia.  As a historian, her areas of expertise include the US South, Civil War, and nationalism and transnational history. Dr. Tucker has long been interested in issues of southern identity, and became interested in the creation of the Italian nation while studying abroad in Venice.  She combines these interests to research and write on southern nationalism in the Civil War Era through a transnational approach.  Her work demonstrates the influence of European nationalist movements, such as the Revolutions of 1848 and Italian Risorgimento, on the development of the Confederacy.

 She is the author of Newest Born of Nations:  European Nationalist Movements and the Creation of the Confederacy, published by the University of Virginia Press (June 2020).  In this book, she argues that white southerners in the Civil War Era used their analysis of nineteenth century European nationalist movements to shape their idea of what a nation could and should be, to begin to conceive of the South as different than the North on issues of nationhood and to develop the idea of the South as a potential nation, and to defend and legitimize secession and the Confederacy.

Her in-progress second project will extend her analysis into the Reconstruction era to examine how former Confederates’ international perspective on nationhood helped them remake their own sense of nationhood in the post-Civil War era.  The first portion of this research was published as “To ‘Heal the Wounded Spirit’:  Former Confederates’ International Perspective on Reconstruction and Reconciliation,” in Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives, ed. Paul Quigley and James Hawdon (Routledge, 2018).

Twitter: @AnnLTucker

Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?

My writing focuses on the question of how European nations such as Italy influenced the US South during the Civil War Era.  When I studied abroad in Italy, I took a class on Italian film, and it really fired my imagination.  I had never considered film as a form of art before, and analyzing films from that perspective opened up a whole new set of ideas for me.  Because the films we studied were Italian films, my new interest in film history combined with my growing love of Italy to inspire me to learn more about Italian history.  Although I have not continued my film studies, my love of Italy directly led me to study international influences on the American Civil War.  In that way, these films shaped the very content of and inspiration behind my writing.

Favorite non-reading activity?

Anything outside!  These days I’m spending a lot of time running (very slowly in the heat of a southern summer!), but I love heading to the river or the beach and fishing, swimming, water-skiing, etc.  I’d like to take advantage of the great hiking in North Georgia and start exploring the area as well.

Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?

My go-to comfort food is my mom and grandmothers’ home cooking!  A lot of the food I grew up eating is classic southern food, but my maternal grandmother was French Creole from New Orleans, so that’s comfort food to me, too.  Although I’ve never directly made the connection between food and my writing, a main inspiration behind my work was a desire to understand the origins of southern culture and identity.  This interest in the origins of southern identity certainly ties into the southern and creole food I grew up eating, and the way that people of all cultures connect food to culture and identity. 

More recently, a family friend gave me a bottle of Italian olive oil that was produced on land that Giuseppe Garibaldi used to own, and since I write about Giuseppe Garibaldi, my “Garibaldi olive oil” quickly became a favorite!

Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?

I absolutely love reading, plus I’m stubborn (we joke in my family about “Tucker Stubborn” – a useful trait for a writer as well as for a reader!), so I generally finish any book I start.  For non-fiction books, there’s almost always something I can learn.  For fiction books, I can relax to almost anything!  The one thing that might prompt me to bail on a book is poor quality:  inaccurate facts or interpretation, poor grammar, or problematic treatment of gender or race.

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

Both titles feel like aspirational titles that I still hesitate to claim!  That said, to me, a writer is a person who is engaged in writing, while an author is a writer who is putting their writing to work, either by publishing, promoting, building a readership, etc.  I don’t think I would have been able to make that distinction until the past few months, as the publication date for Newest Born of Nations has approached and I’ve found myself engaging in all sorts of promotional work that I had never thought about while I was still writing the book!  Writing is the much more familiar task to me, as I spent over a decade doing the research for and writing Newest Born of Nations, and have already started researching and writing the next project (it’s a sequel – stay tuned!).  Being an author – having published work to promote, positioning myself as someone who has a book out – is a much less familiar role, but in many ways, I’ve been enjoying it as the reward at the end of a long writing process.  I look forward to continuing to speak on Newest Born of Nations, especially once we can resume in-person events, but I also look forward to shifting my main attention back to research and writing once Newest Born of Nations is fully launched.