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Books > Humanities > History > American history > 1800 to 1900
2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalists -
Multicultural "I am a man torn in two. And the gospel I inherited
is divided." Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in
the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. But he
gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity
proclaimed was not good news for everybody. The same Christianity
that sang, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" also perpetuated
racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. His
Christianity, he discovered, was the religion of the slaveholder.
Just as Reconstruction after the Civil War worked to repair a
desperately broken society, our compromised Christianity requires a
spiritual reconstruction that undoes the injustices of the past.
Wilson-Hartgrove traces his journey from the religion of the
slaveholder to the Christianity of Christ. Reconstructing the
gospel requires facing the pain of the past and present, from
racial blindness to systemic abuses of power. Grappling seriously
with troubling history and theology, Wilson-Hartgrove recovers the
subversiveness of the gospel that sustained the church through
centuries of slavery and oppression, from the civil rights era to
the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond. When the gospel is
reconstructed, freedom rings for both individuals and society as a
whole. Discover how Jesus continues to save us from ourselves and
each other, to repair the breach and heal our land.
"The American Nation: Primary Sources "resumes the narrative begun
in its companion volume, "The American Republic" which covered the
first eight decades of U.S. history, ending at the onset of the
Civil War. "The American Nation" continues the story through
America's entrance into World War II.
"The American Nation" makes available, in one volume, many of the
most crucial documents necessary for understanding the variety of
policies and viewpoints driving American public life during an
important, substantive part of American history. The primary
sources in "The American Nation" are relevant to the Civil War,
Reconstruction, the rise of a national capitalist system and
culture, the waves of reform-minded thought and policy that moved
the nation toward formation of the national administrative and
welfare states, and America's emergence as a major power on the
world stage. This period was a watershed in the history of the
nation--the time of establishing and consolidating national power
and laying the foundations of a national government committed to
promoting the material well-being of Americans. It was an era that
witnessed the development of the nation-state and the establishment
of the New Deal regime, which set the stage for the radical social
movements of the 1960s and beyond.
For decades debates have raged concerning the nature and impact of
post-Civil War Reconstruction, as well as the major popular legal
and ideological movements shaping the United States during the
period up to World War II. This critical era encompassed the rise
of mass-market corporatism and America's entry into world politics.
Recent social history has uncovered a great deal of information
regarding the daily lives of Americans during this era. Of equal
importance is an in-depth study of the public documents critical
for an understanding of the effects of public acts and
pronouncements on Americans. This volume will allow students and
readers to readily engage, without interpretation, the original
historical documents that have shaped the history of American
public life.
Some of the primary documents include the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, the Sherman Antitrust
Act, and the Monroe Doctrine. Some of the authors featured include
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jefferson Davis, Robert LaFollette,
Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, William Graham Sumner, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, and Booker T. Washington, among many others.
Bruce P. Frohnen is Associate Professor of Law at Ohio Northern
University College of Law. He holds a J.D. from the Emory
University School of Law and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell
University.
This book examines what the citizen soldiery of the mid-Atlantic
states wore when they marched off to save the Union in 1861. An
exhaustive search of thousands of newspapers has provided a myriad
of reports and personal accounts from soldiers' letters, which
offer a hitherto unpublished view of the stirring events during the
first few months of the Civil War. Combined with fascinating detail
from numerous diaries and regimental histories, this has helped
reconstruct the appearance of the Union volunteers of Pennsylvania,
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of
Columbia. The book is enhanced by photographs of original items of
uniforms from private collections, plus imagery of the day, which
show with remarkable clarity the great variety of clothing and
headgear worn. Sponsored by the Company of Military Historians,
this is an essential reference for collectors, living historians,
modelers, and curators, as well as anyone with a general interest
in the Civil War.
In Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee, Michael
Korda, the New York Times bestselling biographer of Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, and T. E. Lawrence, has written the
first major biography of Lee in nearly twenty years, bringing to
life one of America's greatest, most iconic heroes. Korda paints a
vivid and admiring portrait of Lee as a general and a devoted
family man who, though he disliked slavery and was not in favor of
secession, turned down command of the Union army in 1861 because he
could not "draw his sword" against his own children, his neighbors,
and his beloved Virginia. He was surely America's preeminent
military leader, as calm, dignified, and commanding a presence in
defeat as he was in victory. Lee's reputation has only grown in the
150 years since the Civil War, and Korda covers in groundbreaking
detail all of Lee's battles and traces the making of a great man's
undeniable reputation on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line,
positioning him finally as the symbolic martyr-hero of the Southern
Cause. Clouds of Glory features dozens of stunning illustrations,
some never before seen, including eight pages of color, sixteen
pages of black-and-white, and nearly fifty battle maps.
Why were Generals Lee and Jackson so successful in their partner-
ship in trying to win the war for the South? What was it about
their styles, friendship, even their faith, that cemented them
together into a fighting machine that consistently won despite
often overwhelming odds against them? The Great Partnership has the
power to change how we think about Confederate strategic
decision-making and the value of personal relationships among
senior leaders responsible for organizational survival. Those
relationships in the Confederate high command were particularly
critical for victory, especially the one that existed between the
two great Army of Northern Virginia generals. It has been over two
decades since any author attempted a joint study of the two
generals. At the very least, the book will inspire a very lively
debate among the thousands of students of Civil War his- tory. At
best, it will significantly revise how we evaluate Confederate
strategy during the height the war and our understanding of why, in
the end, the South lost.
"In recent years a highly industrious school of historians has
begun asking whether the war should have been fought at all and
whether it was perhaps not more the fault of the North than of the
South. Seeking to revise earlier judgments they have become known
as the revisionists, and one of the most gifted and studious of
them all is Avery Craven, whose "The Coming of the Civil War" . . .
is one of the landmarks of revisionist literature."--Bruce Catton,
"American Heritage"
." . . those who would examine the democratic process during a
period of progressive breakdown, in order to understand the dangers
it embodies within itself, will find "The Coming of the Civil War"
a classic analysis."--Louis D. Rubin, Jr., "Sewanee Review"
"The book has always been recognized, even by its most severe
critics, as a work of consummate scholarship."--T. Harry Williams,
"Baton Rouge Morning Advocate"
Although he took command of the Army of the Potomac only three days
before the first shots were fired at Gettysburg, Union general
George G. Meade guided his forces to victory in the Civil War's
most pivotal battle. Commentators often dismiss Meade when
discussing the great leaders of the Civil War. But in this
long-anticipated book, Kent Masterson Brown draws on an expansive
archive to reappraise Meade's leadership during the Battle of
Gettysburg. Using Meade's published and unpublished papers
alongside diaries, letters, and memoirs of fellow officers and
enlisted men, Brown highlights how Meade's rapid advance of the
army to Gettysburg on July 1, his tactical control and coordination
of the army in the desperate fighting on July 2, and his
determination to hold his positions on July 3 insured victory.
Brown argues that supply deficiencies, brought about by the army's
unexpected need to advance to Gettysburg, were crippling. In spite
of that, Meade pursued Lee's retreating army rapidly, and his
decision not to blindly attack Lee's formidable defenses near
Williamsport on July 13 was entirely correct in spite of subsequent
harsh criticism. Combining compelling narrative with incisive
analysis, this finely rendered work of military history deepens our
understanding of the Army of the Potomac as well as the
machinations of the Gettysburg Campaign, restoring Meade to his
rightful place in the Gettysburg narrative.
When American slaveholders looked west in the mid-nineteenth
century, they saw an empire unfolding before them. They pursued
that vision through war, diplomacy, political patronage, and
perhaps most effectively, the power of migration. By the eve of the
Civil War, slaveholders and their allies had transformed the
southwestern quarter of the nation--California, New Mexico,
Arizona, and parts of Utah--into an appendage of the South's
plantation states. Across this vast swath of the map, white
southerners extended the institution of African American chattel
slavery while also defending systems of Native American bondage.
This surprising history uncovers the Old South in unexpected
places, far west of the cotton fields and sugar plantations that
exemplify the region. Slaveholders' western ambitions culminated in
a coast-to-coast crisis of the Union. By 1861, the rebellion in the
South inspired a series of separatist movements in the Far West.
Even after the collapse of the Confederacy, the threads connecting
South and West held, undermining the radical promise of
Reconstruction. Kevin Waite brings to light what contemporaries
recognized but historians have described only in part: The struggle
over slavery played out on a transcontinental stage.
Winner of the Jefferson Davis Award Winner of the Johns Family Book
Award Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished
Writing Award "A work of deep intellectual seriousness, sweeping
and yet also delicately measured, this book promises to resolve
longstanding debates about the nature of the Civil War." -Gregory
P. Downs, author of After Appomattox Shiloh, Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg-tens of thousands of soldiers died on these iconic Civil
War battlefields, and throughout the South civilians suffered
terrible cruelty. At least three-quarters of a million lives were
lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly
indiscriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of
as the first "total war." But Aaron Sheehan-Dean argues for another
interpretation. The Calculus of Violence demonstrates that this
notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces
on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers
and civilians. In Congress, in church pews, and in letters home,
Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was
legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among
victims-women and men, black and white, enslaved and free.
Sometimes, as Sheehan-Dean shows, these well-meaning restraints led
to more carnage by implicitly justifying the killing of people who
were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on,
the Union's confrontations with guerrillas and the Confederacy's
confrontations with black soldiers forced a new reckoning with
traditional categories of lawful combatants and raised legal
disputes that still hang over military operations around the world
today. In examining the agonizing debates about the meaning of a
just war in the Civil War era, Sheehan-Dean discards conventional
abstractions-total, soft, limited-as too tidy to contain what
actually happened on the ground.
As the sectional crisis gripped the United States, the rancor
increasingly spread to the halls of Congress. Preston Brooks's
frenzied assault on Charles Sumner was perhaps the most notorious
evidence of the dangerous divide between proslavery Democrats and
the new antislavery Republican Party. But as disunion loomed, rifts
within the majority Democratic Party were every bit as
consequential. And nowhere was the fracture more apparent than in
the raging debates between Illinois's Stephen Douglas and
Mississippi's Jefferson Davis. As leaders of the Democrats'
northern and southern factions before the Civil War, their
passionate conflict of words and ideas has been overshadowed by
their opposition to Abraham Lincoln. But here, weaving together
biography and political history, Michael E. Woods restores Davis
and Douglas's fatefully entwined lives and careers to the center of
the Civil War era. Operating on personal, partisan, and national
levels, Woods traces the deep roots of Democrats' internal strife,
with fault lines drawn around fundamental questions of property
rights and majority rule. Neither belief in white supremacy nor
expansionist zeal could reconcile Douglas and Davis's factions as
their constituents formed their own lines in the proverbial soil of
westward expansion. The first major reinterpretation of the
Democratic Party's internal schism in more than a generation,
Arguing until Doomsday shows how two leading antebellum politicians
ultimately shattered their party and hastened the coming of the
Civil War.
Lieutenant Benjamin Loring lived the life of an everyman Civil War
soldier. He commanded no armies; he devised no grand strategies.
Lt. Loring was a soldier who just wanted to return home, where he
awaited the biggest story of his life. In I Held Lincoln: A Union
Sailor's Journey Home, Richard E. Quest tells the story of Lt.
Loring and his noteworthy impact on American history. Covering
almost a year of Lt. Loring's service, I Held Lincoln includes the
Lieutenant's command of the gunboat Wave, the Battle of the
Calcasieu River, the surrender of the ship, and Lt. Loring's
capture by the Confederates. He was incarcerated in Camp Groce, a
deadly Confederate prison where he endured horrific conditions and
abuse. Loring attempted to escape, evading capture for ten arduous
days behind enemy lines, only to be recaptured just a few miles
from freedom. After his second escape, Lt. Loring finally gained
his freedom behind Union lines. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lt.
Loring attended Ford's Theater and witnessed one of the single most
tragic events in American history: the assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln. After the shot rang out, Lt. Loring climbed up the
presidential box where he assisted the dying president and helped
carry him across the street to the Peterson House. Using a recently
discovered private journal of Lt. Loring, Quest tells this
astonishing lost story, giving insight into a little-known
Confederate prison camp during the last days of the Civil War,
along with providing much-deserved recognition to a man whose
journey has been overlooked and lost to American history.
In Armies of Deliverance, Elizabeth R. Varon argues that
Northerners imagined the war as a crusade to deliver the Southern
masses from slaveholder domination and to bring democracy,
prosperity, and education to the region. And that Confederates,
fighting to establish an independent slaveholding republic, were
determined to preempt, discredit, and silence Yankee appeals to the
Southern masses. Interweaving military and social history, Varon
shows how the Union's politics of deliverance helped it to win the
war but also ultimately sowed the seeds of postwar discord.
With The Weaker Sex in War, Kristen Brill shows how white women's
wartime experiences shaped Confederate political culture-and the
ways in which Confederate political culture shaped their wartime
experiences. These white women had become passionate supporters of
independence to advance the cause of Southern nationalism and were
used by Confederate leadership to advance the cause. These women,
drawn from the middle and planter class, played an active,
deliberate role in the effort. They became knowing and keen
participants in shaping and circulating a gendered nationalist
narrative, as both actors for and symbols of the Confederate cause.
Through their performance of patriotic devotion, these women helped
make gender central to the formation of Confederate national
identity, to an extent previously unreckoned with by scholars of
the Civil War era.In this important and original work, Brill weaves
together individual women's voices in the private sphere,
collective organizations in civic society, and political ideology
and policy in the political arena. A signal contribution to an
increasingly rich vein of historiography, The Weaker Sex in War
provides a definitive take on white women and political culture in
the Confederacy.
From the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in 1861 to the final
clashes on the Road to Appomattox in 1864, The Atlas of the Civil
War reconstructs the battles of America's bloodiest war with
unparalleled clarity and precision. Edited by Pulitzer Prize
recipient James M. McPherson and written by America's leading
military historians, this peerless reference charts the major
campaigns and skirmishes of the Civil War. Each battle is
meticulously plotted on one of 200 specially commissioned
full-color maps. Timelines provide detailed, play-by-play
maneuvers, and the accompanying text highlights the strategic aims
and tactical considerations of the men in charge. Each of the
battle, communications, and locator maps are cross-referenced to
provide a comprehensive overview of the fighting as it swept across
the country. With more than two hundred photographs and countless
personal accounts that vividly describe the experiences of soldiers
in the fields, The Atlas of the Civil War brings to life the human
drama that pitted state against state and brother against brother.
"A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction" is an
extraordinary collection of 23 essays addressing the key topics and
themes of the most divisive era in United States history. These
original essays by top scholars in the field are organized
chronologically into three parts: "Sectional Conflict and the
Coming of the Civil War," "The Civil War and American Society," and
"Reconstruction and the New Nation." Each essay is an interpretive
summary of the key literature in the field, and places the topic in
historical context. Contributors include bibliographies and suggest
future directions of the historiography. This volume provides
students, scholars, and informed general readers of Civil War and
Reconstruction history with a valuable guide to their research and
teaching.
Buffalo Bill Cody was bigger than life. He was also braver,
handsomer, and kinder-in short, just about perfect, as any reader
of Prentiss Ingraham's dime novels could tell you. Along with his
nearly 600 novels and plays, Ingraham (1843-1904), Confederate
colonel and mercenary, penned a biography of his hero. The Buffalo
Bill Cody who emerges from this book is not so very different from
the paragon in Ingraham's novels, but as Cody's close companion,
Ingraham had the inside story on this iconic figure of the American
West. Add to that the dime novel-writer's bravura style, and
Ingraham's Buffalo Bill Cody: A Man of the West becomes an
irresistible work of Americana, in many ways an apt portrait of its
larger-than-life subject. And because both men were firsthand
witnesses to historic moments-the struggle between slavers and
abolitionists, the Civil War, the building of the railroads, the
Indian Wars, the golden age of circuses- - the biography offers a
close-up perspective of life on the American frontier. Published
here with an introduction and notes by Cody aficionado Sandra K.
Sagala, who transcribed and edited the text of the biography from
the original that was serialized in 1895 by Duluth Press, and
illustrated with line drawings by one of Ingraham's contemporaries,
Buffalo Bill Cody: A Man of the West is at once a unique view of an
outsize figure of the Wild West, an original document of American
history, and a performance as entertaining as any the self-styled
cowboy and showman Buffalo Bill Cody ever staged.
Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic
engagement during the Civil War's Atlanta Campaign. Confederate
forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T.
Sherman's advancing armies as they tried to cut the last
Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General
Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but
Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every
attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Confederates lay dead
and wounded, while only 632 Federals were lost. The result was
another major step in Sherman's long effort to take Atlanta. Hess's
compelling study is the first book-length account of the fighting
at Ezra Church. Detailing Lee's tactical missteps and Howard's
vigilant leadership, he challenges many common misconceptions about
the battle. Richly narrated and drawn from an array of unpublished
manuscripts and firsthand accounts, Hess's work sheds new light on
the complexities and significance of this important engagement,
both on and off the battlefield.
Much has been written about place and Civil War memory, but how do
we personally remember and commemorate this part of our collective
past? How do battlefields and other historic places help us
understand our own history? What kinds of places are worth
remembering and why? In this collection of essays, some of the most
esteemed historians of the Civil War select a single meaningful
place related to war and narrate its significance. Included here
are meditations on a wide assortment of places-Devil's Den at
Gettysburg, Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, the statue of William
T. Sherman in New York's Central Park, Burnside Bridge at Antietam,
the McLean House in Appomattox, and more. Paired with a
contemporary photograph commissioned specifically for this book,
each essay offers an unusual and accessible glimpse into how
historians think about their subjects. In addition to the editors,
contributors include Edward L. Ayers, Stephen Berry, William A.
Blair, David W. Blight, Peter S. Carmichael, Frances M. Clarke,
Catherine Clinton, Stephen Cushman, Stephen D. Engle, Drew Gilpin
Faust, Sarah E. Gardner, Judith Giesberg, Lesley J. Gordon, A.
Wilson Greene, Caroline E. Janney, Jaqueline Jones, Ari Kelman,
James Marten, Carol Reardon, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Brenda E.
Stevenson, Elizabeth R. Varon, and Joan Waugh.
General William T. Sherman's 1865 Carolinas Campaign receives scant
attention from most Civil War historians, largely because it was
overshadowed by the Army of Northern Virginia's final battles
against the Army of the Potomac. Career military officers Mark A.
Smith and Wade Sokolosky rectify this oversight with No Such Army
Since the Days of Julius Caesar, a careful and impartial
examination of Sherman's army and its many accomplishments. The
authors dedicate their professional training and research and
writing abilities to the critical days of March 11-16, 1865-the
overlooked run-up to the seminal Battle of Bentonville (March
19-21, 1865). They begin with the capture of Fayetteville and the
demolition of the arsenal there, before chronicling the two-day
Battle of Averasboro in more detail than any other study. At
Averasboro, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee's Confederates conducted a
well-planned and brilliantly executed defense-in-depth that held
Sherman's juggernaut in check for two days. With his objective
accomplished, Hardee disengaged and marched to concentrate his
corps with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston for what would become
Bentonville. This completely revised and updated edition of"No Such
Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar": Sherman's Carolinas Campaign
from Fayetteville to Averasboro, March 1865 is based upon extensive
archival and firsthand research. It includes new original maps,
orders of battle, abundant illustrations, and a detailed driving
and walking tour for dedicated battlefield enthusiasts. Readers
with an interest in the Carolinas, Generals Sherman and Johnston,
or the Civil War in general will enjoy this book.
Along with Confederate flags, the men and women who recently
gathered before the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts carried signs
proclaiming "Heritage Not Hate." Theirs, they said, was an "open
and visible protest against those who attacked us, ours flags, our
ancestors, or our Heritage." How, Nicole Maurantonio wondered, did
"not hate" square with a "heritage" grounded in slavery? How do
so-called neo-Confederates distance themselves from the actions and
beliefs of white supremacists while clinging to the very symbols
and narratives that tether the Confederacy to the history of racism
and oppression in America? The answer, Maurantonio discovers, is
bound up in the myth of Confederate exceptionalism-a myth whose
components, proponents, and meaning this timely and provocative
book exploresThe narrative of Confederate exceptionalism, in this
analysis, updates two uniquely American mythologies-the Lost Cause
and American exceptionalism-blending their elements with discourses
of racial neoliberalism to create a seeming separation between the
Confederacy and racist systems. Incorporating several methods and
drawing from a range of sources-including ethnographic
observations, interviews, and archival documents-Maurantonio
examines the various people, objects, and rituals that contribute
to this cultural balancing act. Her investigation takes in
"official" modes of remembering the Confederacy, such as the
monuments and building names that drive the discussion today, but
it also pays attention to the more mundane and often subtle ways in
which the Confederacy is recalled. Linking the different modes of
commemoration, her work bridges the distance that believers in
Confederate exceptionalism maintain; while situated in history from
the Civil War through the civil rights era, the book brings
much-needed clarity to the constitution, persistence, and
significance of this divisive myth in the context of our time.
Irish-born and Irish-descended soldiers and sailors were involved
in every major engagement of the American Civil War. Throughout the
conflict, they shared their wartime experiences through songs and
song lyrics, leaving behind a vast trove of ballads in songbooks,
letters, newspaper publications, wartime diaries, and other
accounts. Taken together, these songs and lyrics offer an
underappreciated source of contemporary feelings and opinions about
the war. Catherine V. Bateson's Irish American Civil War Songs
provides the first in-depth exploration of Irish Americans' use of
balladry to portray and comment on virtually every aspect of the
war as witnessed by the Irish on the front line and home front.
Bateson considers the lyrics, themes, and sentiments of wartime
songs produced in America but often originating with those born
across the Atlantic in Ireland and Britain. Her analysis gives new
insight into views held by the Irish migrant diaspora about the
conflict and the ways those of Irish descent identified with and
fought to defend their adopted homeland. Bateson's investigation of
Irish American song lyrics within the context of broader wartime
experiences enhances our understanding of the Irish contribution to
the American Civil War. At the same time, it demonstrates how Irish
songs shaped many American balladry traditions as they laid the
foundation of the Civil War's musical soundscape.
Peer through history at Confederate Lieutenant General James
Longstreet, whose steady nature and dominating figure earned him
the nicknames "War Horse," "Bulldog," and "Bull of the Woods."
Years after the war, Longstreet's reputation swung between
Confederate hero and brutish scoundrel. A dutiful soldier with a
penchant for drink and gambling, Longstreet spoke little but
inspired many, and he continues to fascinate Civil war historians.
In his memoir From Manassas to Appomattox, Longstreet reveals his
inner musings and insights regarding the War between the States.
Ever the soldier, he skims over his personal life to focus on
battle strategies, war accounts, and opinions regarding other
officers who were as misunderstood as him. The principle
subordinate under General Robert E. Lee, Longstreet provides
several accounts of Lee's leadership and their strong partnership.
An invaluable firsthand account of life during the Civil War, From
Manassas to Appomattox not only illuminates the life and ambitions
of Lieutenant General James Longstreet, but it also offers an
in-depth view of army operations within the Confederacy. An
introduction and notes by prominent historian James I. Robertson
Jr. and a new foreword by Christian Keller offer insight into the
impact of Longstreet's career on American history.
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