Alice Baumgartner is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California, where she teaches courses on 19th century North America. She received a Ph.D. in History from Yale University and an M.Phil in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford. Her first book, South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to Civil War, published in 2020, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.