Hey guys, I'm assuming a lot of you, or most of you have advanced degrees in history or anthropology. The history advisor at my university has not helped me much in terms of finding graduate schools that specifically meet my interests. My interests are the U.S. Civil War and Atlantic/Caribbean Maritime History. Those of you with expertise in that area, what schools/programs/professors out there are the most popular in their field? I have done some research myself already. In terms of the U.S. Civil War, I'm aware of some good schools in the South, like Auburn, where Dr. Kenneth Noe teaches. I was told by a previous professor that no matter what, the University of Virginia should be my end goal if I desire to eventually obtain a PhD in U.S. History. As for Maritime History, I have had to find any universities that offer Maritime History or Maritime Studies departments on my own. I started by reading this helpful article from the AHA. I have found some schools, but not a great quantity. I have been told Texas A&M has one of the best nautical archaeology programs out there. I have also heard that East Carolina University has one of the best Maritime History grad programs in the nation. I am a fan of ECU's multi-disciplinary aspect of combining archaeological training with training as a historian. I have applied for and been accepted into the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies program in Connecticut, hoping that it will bolster my chances of getting into grad school. I think that my interests are most likely mutually exclusive, unfortunately, as I have no idea how I can combine Atlantic/Caribbean Maritime History with the U.S. Civil War unless I speak only about naval engagements. So, i've resigned myself to picking just one of these interests if I eventually need to. If any of you have any advice or wisdom you could send my way about schools that have well-established and special emphases in these subjects, please comment and let me know.
As important, if not more important, that the specific school you apply to will be the faculty you wish to specifically work with. Of course there's a correlation between schools strong in your preferred area and faculty strong in those areas, but find the preferable advisers first and worry about the institution second.
That said, great places to look would be Penn State or UVA, both of which are really strong in Civil War history (though I wouldn't say UVA is the paramount school for all of US history, no matter how much they might want to think so :p). The Richards Center for Civil War studies at Penn State is an excellent resource.
Another important point I want to bring up is that I'm immediately skeptical about doing maritime history, not because it's not important but because of marketability. Straight political history and military history are not in vogue right now and getting a job (or even getting into grad school) while proposing research in those directions will be a problem. You can still pursue those avenues of research but, like Vermeershat already mentioned, you'll have to jazz them up a little. Start reading up on transnationalism regarding American history, specifically look at works by Thomas Bender and Ian Tyrrell. The type of research interests you're proposing lend themselves well to transnational projects, and those are piping hot at the moment.
I don't know any specific knowledge of maritime history, but I'd say that the way to figure out which program suits you would be to write introductory e-mails to key professors in the field -- people who you might want to work with -- and ask them these questions. In my experience, professors are happy to suggest other schools to apply to or to steer you towards or away from their own programs. I later found that all of those e-mail provided a foundational network I could build on later on in my graduate life. And the best fit for you may very well not be at the institution that's most visible in your specific subfield. You may find that having a strong graduate training and working with a sympathetic advisor in another institution is more suitable.
I assume you're applying to Ph.D. programs, in which case you don't necessarily need to worry about having all of your interests pinned down. However, it would help if you could make a case for what exactly you'd like to work on and why -- Atlantic-centered histories of the U.S. Civil war that do a better job of highlighting the global nature of the conflict, for example. I hope that helps.
I have similar interests except I am more into Atlantic/Caribbean Maritime History. I do not recommend Texas A&M. If you really want to learn more about maritime history, ECU is the place to go. They have one of the strongest programs in the world. I am actually friends with a few of the alumni like Hans Van Tilburg and James Delgado. If you are interested in hearing more, just shoot my a private message and i'd be happy to help out in any way.