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Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Jonathan S Jones

North Carolina Historical Review, 2021

F rancis C. Clewell lived a "life of adventure." 1 At least, that is how Clewell's mother remembe... more F rancis C. Clewell lived a "life of adventure." 1 At least, that is how Clewell's mother remembered the Confederate veteran when he died in 1867 at the young age of twenty-five. It was a decent epitaph for a yeoman North Carolina man who lived such a brief life amid a backdrop of monumental social, political, and economic turmoil. But when all angles of Clewell's short, yet astonishing life and death are considered in relation to the broader history of the Civil War-era South, a "life of adventure" falls short. A more accurate description of Clewell's saga would read: he personified Southern history in the Civil War era. By this description, I mean that Clewell's life and death illustrate an astonishingly wide spectrum of the Civil Warera South's major historical developments and themes. Clewell's early life speaks to the immense shadow the West cast over antebellum Southerners' outlooks as well as the complex relationship between yeoman Whites, elite planters, and the institution of slavery. Clewell's actions and experiences in Confederate gray illustrate how proslavery views animated White Southerners' support for the Confederacy, underscore the complex, fraught nature of wartime emancipation, and undercut core elements of the Lost Cause mythology that emerged in the postbellum South. Clewell's postwar travels and travails throw into stark relief the gender crisis and tremendous economic disruptions faced by Southerners in the Civil War's wake while shining new light on how non-slaveholding White men like Clewell navigated these changes. Finally, Clewell's untimely death is emblematic of the mental and physical trauma that plagued veterans long after the war's final shots. All this in

Psychiatric Times, 2021

Opioid addiction was far more common among white Civil War veterans than Black veterans, who lack... more Opioid addiction was far more common among white Civil War veterans than Black veterans, who lacked equitable access to opiates, a pattern that presaged the opioid underprescribing experienced by Black Americans in recent decades.

The Journal of the Civil War Era, 2020

This article investigates opiate addiction among Civil War veterans. Although historians have lon... more This article investigates opiate addiction among Civil War veterans. Although historians have long known that many veterans developed opiate addictions, previous scholarship has neglected the lived experience of addiction and its myriad consequences for veterans in their postwar lives. Drawing upon a sample of a hundred cases, this article argues that opiate addiction caused overwhelming suffering for Civil War veterans, chiefly because “slavery” to opiates—as addiction was often described—violated prevailing ideals of manhood, morality, and mental health. Opiate addiction spelled disaster for veterans’ health and undermined claims to manhood and good moral character. Addiction also limited veterans’ access to pensions and soldiers’ homes and often resulted in involuntary commitment to mental institutions. By uncovering these previously unknown dimensions of opiate addiction, this article furthers scholarly efforts to account for the disastrous personal consequences of the Civil War for many veterans.

Public Writing by Jonathan S Jones

Washington Post, 2021

On Nov. 5, the official domestic coronavirus death toll surpassed that of the Civil War-more than... more On Nov. 5, the official domestic coronavirus death toll surpassed that of the Civil War-more than 778,000 Americans have now died during the pandemic. Going on two years, the pandemic has evolved into a mass death event on par with the United States' most infamously bloody war. Such mass death events are so cataclysmic that Americans must reckon with the meaning behind the mortality. How did things go so wrong, so fast? In our grief, we can turn to history-and learn from it. Like Americans today, 150 years ago, the Civil War generation also struggled to reckon with its own mass death event and give voice to its causes and meaning. Stone monuments and memorial ceremonies helped Americans cope with the Civil War's mass deaths, providing needed catharsis. In the long term, however, these memorials were coopted by bad actors and ultimately used to deflect blame for the war's enormous death toll. 7/23/22, 4:36 PM Covid-19 has killed more Americans than the Civil War. How do we remember them?-The Washington Post

Andersonville was a notoriously deadly Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War loca... more Andersonville was a notoriously deadly Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War located in a Georgia swamp. A quarter of the prison population died of diseases like dysentery, "chronic diarrhea," and typhoid. Library of Congress

Vice, 2021

According to most accounts, America's opioid crisis dates back to the late 1990s. That's when pre... more According to most accounts, America's opioid crisis dates back to the late 1990s. That's when predatory Big Pharma companies like Purdue Pharma lied to doctors, falsely claiming that opioid painkillers like Oxycontin and Opana were safe and non-addictive. Prescriptions for addictive opioids skyrocketed during the 2000s, sparking an epidemic of drug addiction that quickly spiraled out of control. But while this narrative might be convenient, it isn't the full story, because, devastating though it is, this is not America's first opioid crisis. Its roots go far deeper. America's earliest opioid crisis occurred 150 years ago, in the aftermath of the American Civil War, when an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction killed tens of thousands of Army veterans.

Washington Post, 2020

In a well-meaning tweet Tuesday afternoon, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the novel coronav... more In a well-meaning tweet Tuesday afternoon, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the novel coronavirus "the great equalizer"-capable of sickening anyone, 20-somethings and senior citizens, ordinary Americans or famous actors. All of us could potentially contract covid-19 in coming days and weeks-including the governor's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who came down with the disease Tuesday. Certainly, Gov. Cuomo's broader point, that no one is immune to the coronavirus, is soberingly valid. But his

Gotham Center for New York City History, 2019

The Civil War Monitor, 2017

Muster, Journal of the Civil War Era, 2016

WSKG (PBS affiliate, Binghamton NY), 2016

Civil War combat is often romanticized in popular accounts of the war, causing its darker side to... more Civil War combat is often romanticized in popular accounts of the war, causing its darker side to be overlooked. This makes Tom Fairfax an especially striking and important example in popular culture of how survivors fared mentally after the smoke of the Civil War faded.

Media Appearances by Jonathan S Jones

Appearance on The Rogue Historian podcast to discuss opiate addiction among Civil War veterans.

Interview by Martha Bebinger for CommonHealth, aired August 1, 2017 on WBUR (Boston NPR affiliate)