A professor of history emeritus at the University of Kentucky, Charles P. Roland is the author or coauthor of many books, including An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War; Louisiana Sugar Plantations during the Civil War; The Confederacy; A History of the South; The Improbable Era: The South since World War II; Reflections on Lee: A Historian's Assessment; and Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics. He is a former president of the Southern Historical Association and a recipient of the Civil War Education Association's William Woods Hassler Award for notable achievements in Civil War history. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.