Heath Anderson is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Mississippi State University. His dissertation explores how competing nineteenth-century conceptions of civilization shaped the course of Reconstruction, with a focus on events in Mississippi and Louisiana. He received his B.A. and M.A. in History from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017 and 2019, respectively. His master's thesis examined Confederate General-turned-politician William Mahone and his leadership of Virginia's biracial Readjuster Party in the 1880s.