Historian Tom Chaffin is the author, most recently, of “Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, The Beagle, and The Voyage that Changed the World” (Feb. 2022, Pegasus). The work, focused on the naturalist’s five years of global travel aboard HMS Beagle, chronicles the formative experiences of his youth.
Chaffin’s earlier books include “Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations,” “Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire,” “Sea of Gray: The Around-The-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah,” and “Giant’s Causeway: Frederick Douglass’s Irish Odyssey and the Making of an American Visionary.”
The author was born and grew up in Atlanta and spent his early professional years in journalism, living in, among other places, Savannah, New York City, San Francisco, and Paris. Chaffin has taught U.S. history and writing at various universities.
He holds a B.A. in English from Georgia State University, an M.A. in American Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D. in history from Emory University. His articles, reviews and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Time, American Scholar, Harper’s, The Nation, the Oxford American, and other publications. He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times‘ acclaimed “Disunion” series on the American Civil War. In 2012, he was a Fulbright fellow in Ireland.
Books in order of publication:
Fatal Glory: Narciso Lopez and the First Clandestine U. S. War Against Cuba – 1996
Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire – 2002
Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah – 2006
The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy – 2008
Giant’s Causeway: Frederick Douglass’s Irish Odyssey and the Making of an American Visionary – 2014
Met His Every Goal? James K. Polk and the Legends of Manifest Destiny – 2014
Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations – 2019
Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, The Beagle, and The Voyage that Changed the World – 2022
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