Welcome

I am Julius Wilm, a historian of the 19th-century United States. My research maps the nexus of democratic reform, social conflict, and settler-colonial expansion, asking how laws and land policies shaped US society—often at a devastating human cost.

My first book, Settlers as Conquerors (2018), analyzed the colonial roots of antebellum free land laws. My current digital project traces the impact of the Homestead Act, using GIS to visualize the effects of the law for Indigenous peoples in the West and African Americans in the Deep South. I also explore the transatlantic dimensions of U.S. history and memory, including the contested legacy of German-American figures like Carl Schurz.

Alongside scholarly work, I engage in public history through digital atlases, media commentary, and writing for broader audiences.