The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Published continuously since 1903, the Register is among the oldest historical journals in the United States and continues to provide fresh perspectives on the history of Kentucky and its people. The Register includes the work of leading scholars on the commonwealth but is widely accessible to general readers interested in Kentucky history. Published quarterly, it is a benefit of Kentucky Historical Society membership. Beginning with volume 108, the Register is also published electronically through Project MUSE (http://muse.jhu.edu), the digital publications arm of The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Coming Soon! As a new benefit of membership, KHS members who subscribe to the Register will soon be able to access recent issues of the Register on Project MUSE. Stay tuned!



Leading scholars whose articles have appeared recently in the Register include William J. Cooper Jr., Elizabeth D. Leonard, John David Smith, and George C. Wright. The Register has also published extended interviews with nationally prominent historians, including Edward M. Coffman, George C. Herring, Robert V. Remini, and Charles P. Roland. Recent special issues have explored Abraham Lincoln and Kentucky, Kentucky and the Contested Legacy of Jefferson Davis, Appalachian Kentucky and the War on Poverty, and Kentucky's African American past. The Richard H. Collins Award is made possible by funds provided by the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation and recognizes the author of the best article published each year.

Issues of the Register include an extensive book review section that covers all recent scholarship on Kentucky as well as a wide array of works on American history and culture.

To obtain recent back issues of the Register, contact the KHS Membership Office at 502-564-1792, ext. 4414. Photocopies of articles from the The Register may be ordered by using the KHS Publications Request Form.


Manuscript Submission Guidelines


Index for the Register, volumes 68-110 (1970-2012)


Table of Contents for the full run of the Register


The Register Editorial Staff

Nelson L. Dawson, Editor
nelson.dawson@ky.gov

James Russell Harris, Senior Associate Editor
russell.harris@ky.gov

Elizabeth J. Van Allen, Associate Editor
beth.vanallen@ky.gov

Robert Murray, Graduate Editorial Assistant
robert.murray@ky.gov



The Register News

Now Available!

New Perspectives on Civil War–Era Kentucky, Volume 110, Numbers 3-4 (Summer/Autumn 2012), $15.

Exploring Kentucky's African American Past, Volume 109, Numbers 3-4 (Summer/Autumn 2011), $15.

Kentucky and the Contested Legacy of Jefferson Davis, Volume 107, Number 2 (Spring 2009), $12.

Abraham Lincoln and Kentucky, Volume 106, Numbers 3-4 (Summer/Autumn 2008), $15.

To order, contact Nelson Dawson at nelson.dawson@ky.gov or 502-564-1792, ext. 4415.


Coming Soon!

The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Volume 111, Number two (Spring 2013)

The "Free and Easy" Generation of Kentucky and the War of 1812 by James P. Cousins
This essay explores the beliefs and values of the "free and easy" generation of the era of the War of 1812. James Cousins analyzes the culture of the university students of the day and shows how they were able to uphold "standards of patriotic morality while building new definitions of honor and heroic conduct."

Barton Warren Stone: Revisiting Revival in the Early Republic by Matthew D. Smith
Barton Warren Stone was an early-nineteenth-century religious leader whose multifaceted career embodied the religious, social, and political tensions of his time. Matthew D. Smith discusses Stone's involvement in the Great Revival, his relation to the Campbellite movement, his emerging antislavery position, and his reaction to the Shakers.

Unionism, Emancipation, and the Origins of Kentucky's Confederate Identity by Jacob F. Lee
Jacob Lee revisits the issue of Kentucky identity during the Civil War era and analyzes the factors which led to the state renouncing secession and remaining in the Union. Further analysis discusses the reasons that Kentucky became more and more estranged from the Union war effort and then "joined" the Confederacy after the war ended.