Areas of Expertise

• 19th Century U.S.
• Civil War and Reconstruction

Steve Engle serves as Vice Provost for Academic Personnel. He made the transition to the Provost’s Office after more than three decades on the faculty in the History Department, though he continues to teach. His research focuses on the study of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era, and his books examine the ethnic dimensions of the period, civil-military relations during the war, and the politics of race and power. His articles and essays have appeared in Civil War History, Reviews in American History, Journal of the West, Journal of Negro History, Yearbook of German American Studies, Journal of Urban History, Massachusetts Historical Review, AHA Perspectives, Journal of Federal History, and The American Historian. 

In addition, he has held several offices in professional societies, including having served as the Executive Treasurer for the Society of Civil War Historians as well as the Book Review Editor for the SCWH Newsletter for nearly 30 years. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Abraham Lincoln Prize, as well as several academic press boards. He is also a member of the Society for German American Studies. 

His 2016 work, Gathering to Save a Nation received the 55th Annual Barondess-Lincoln Award, was a finalist for the Emerging Civil War Book Award, and named Honorable Mention for the Sally and Morris Lasky Prize in Political History. His most recent book, In Pursuit of Justice: The Life of John Albion Andrew, appeared in 2023. The same year he received the Governor Andrew Award from the Union Club of Boston and sponsored by the Seventh & Eighth Street Foundation for outstanding research and writing on the Civil War.  He is currently working on a book-length manuscript tentatively entitled: “Reckoning with Justice: The Execution of John Brown.”

During his time in the History Department, he served as department chair, graduate director, and director of the Alan B. and Charna Larkin Symposium Series on the American Presidency. Dr. Engle has been a part of C-span’s “Lectures in American History,” series as well as spending a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany where he taught at both Martin Luther University in Halle and the American History Institute in Wittenberg. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and a Smithsonian Associates Lecturer for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 2016, FAU recognized him as the Distinguished Teacher of the Year. In 2019, he was appointed NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative for FAU.

A native of the Lower Shenandoah Valley, Steve grew up near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  He spent a year teaching at Florida State University before joining the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in 1990.

Courses

Undergraduate Courses

• Age of Jefferson and Jackson
• Historical Methods
• Constitutional History of the United States
• Civil War and Reconstruction
• 19th Century America
• Constitutional History of the United States

Graduate Courses

• The Historical Experience
• Age of Jefferson and Jackson
• 19th Century America
• Civil War and Reconstruction

Curriculum Vitae (Available upon request)