History professor Dr. John Mayfield was recently nominated for the prestigious Lincoln Prize for his book Counterfeit Gentlemen: Manhood and Humor in the Old South by the University Press of Florida. “Counterfeit Gentlemen explores the bewildering task of being a ‘man’ in the Old South and looks at how Southern writers used humor to negotiate the path between the traditional culture of honor and the emerging culture of the market revolution, or between being a cavalier and a con man,” Dr. Mayfield said.

The Lincoln Prize is awarded each year to the “finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, or the American Civil War soldier, or a subject relating to their era,” according to their website.