Paul Quigley is the James I. Robertson, Jr. Associate Professor of Civil War History in the History Department at Virginia Tech, where he also serves as director of the Center for Humanities and the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. Originally from Manchester, England, he holds degrees from Lancaster University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Quigley is the author of the award-winning "Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-65." His work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Southern History and Journal of the Civil War Era, as well as the Roanoke Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. In 2018 he published an edited volume entitled "The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship," and another essay collection, "Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives," coedited with sociologist James E. Hawdon. Quigley also led the NEH-funded project “Experiencing Civil War History Through Augmented Reality: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Environment at Pamplin Historical Park.”

His next book, "The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War," will be published by Oxford University Press in May 2026. Focusing on the life and reputation of Preston Brooks--the South Carolina congressman who famously assaulted Senator Charles Sumner in the US Senate in 1856--this book reinterprets the roots of the American Civil War; probes changing connections between violence, political rhetoric, masculinity, and regional identity; and offers historical context for the political violence and polarization that are taking new forms today. 

Quigley serves on the editorial board of the journal Civil War History, and has previously served on the historians advisory board of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond and the advisory board of the Society of Civil War Historians.