About the Author Kenneth M. Stampp is Morrison Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. A past president of the Organization of American Historians, a recipient of an American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of several seminal works in American history, including The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South and The Imperiled Union.