History Breakfast

Friday, July 17, 2026 from 6:45-7:45am

The Kentucky Desert: How Kentucky Prolonged the Life of the Confederacy  by Lucas Wilder

Dr. Lucas Wilder received his Bachelors Degree from Lincoln Memorial University, his Masters from East Tennessee State University, and his PhD from Mississippi State University.

Being born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains instilled in him a love for its history and more specifically, it's Civil War History. Lucas' dissertation focused on the evolution of mountain warfare by analyzing the multiple attempted invasions of East Tennessee. By incorporating the Appalachian environment into his studies, he hopes to explain why military campaigns succeeded and failed due to the military's relationship with the natural world.

Lucas has worked for the National Park Service as an interpretive ranger for nearly 15 years and has a prospering YouTube channel called History Gone Wilder, where he hopes to bring academic studies to the masses through his breakdowns of historical topics using the latest scholarship. With nearly 700 videos, 1 million hours of watch time, and 8 million views and counting, Lucas' channel brings history and its complexities to the forefront of people's minds through animated battle maps, book reviews, interviews, and deep dives into historical people and events.