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Books > History > American history > 1800 to 1900

American Discord - The Republic and Its People in the Civil War Era (Hardcover): Lesley J Gordon, Megan L. Bever, Laura Mammina American Discord - The Republic and Its People in the Civil War Era (Hardcover)
Lesley J Gordon, Megan L. Bever, Laura Mammina; Gary W. Gallagher, Lawrence A. Kreiser Jr, …
R1,420 Discovery Miles 14 200 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

A panoramic collection of essays written by both established and emerging scholars, American Discord examines critical aspects of the Civil War era, including rhetoric and nationalism, politics and violence, gender, race, and religion. Beginning with an overview of the political culture of the 1860s, the collection reveals that most Americans entered the decade opposed to political compromise. Essays from Megan L. Bever, Glenn David Brasher, Lawrence A. Kreiser Jr., and Christian McWhirter discuss the rancorous political climate of the day and the sense of racial superiority woven into the political fabric of the era. Shifting focus to the actual war, Rachel K. Deale, Lindsay Rae Privette, Adam H. Petty, and A. Wilson Greene contribute essays on internal conflict, lack of compromise, and commitment to white supremacy. Here, contributors adopt a broad understanding of ""battle,"" considering environmental effects and the impact of the war after the battles were over. Essays by Laura Mammina and Charity Rakestraw and Kristopher A. Teters reveal that while the war blurred the boundaries, it ultimately prompted Americans to grasp for the familiar established hierarchies of gender and race. Examinations of chaos and internal division suggest that the political culture of Reconstruction was every bit as contentious as the war itself. Former Confederates decried the barbarity of their Yankee conquerors, while Republicans portrayed Democrats as backward rubes in need of civilizing. Essays by Kevin L. Hughes, Daniel J. Burge, T. Robert Hart, John F. Marszalek, and T. Michael Parrish highlight Americans' continued reliance on hyperbolic rhetoric. American Discord embraces a multifaceted view of the Civil War and its aftermath, attempting to capture the complicated human experiences of the men and women caught in the conflict. These essays acknowledge that ordinary people and their experiences matter, and the dynamics among family members, friends, and enemies have far-reaching consequences.

I Remain Yours - Common Lives in Civil War Letters (Hardcover): Christopher Hager I Remain Yours - Common Lives in Civil War Letters (Hardcover)
Christopher Hager
R917 Discovery Miles 9 170 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

When North and South went to war, millions of American families endured their first long separation. For men in the armies-and their wives, children, parents, and siblings at home-letter writing was the sole means to communicate. Yet for many of these Union and Confederate families, taking pen to paper was a new and daunting task. I Remain Yours narrates the Civil War from the perspective of ordinary people who had to figure out how to salve the emotional strain of war and sustain their closest relationships using only the written word. Christopher Hager presents an intimate history of the Civil War through the interlaced stories of common soldiers and their families. The previously overlooked words of a carpenter from Indiana, an illiterate teenager from Connecticut, a grieving mother in the mountains of North Carolina, and a blacksmith's daughter on the Iowa prairie reveal through their awkward script and expression the personal toll of war. Is my son alive or dead? Returning soon or never? Can I find words for the horrors I've seen or the loneliness I feel? Fear, loss, and upheaval stalked the lives of Americans straining to connect the battlefront to those they left behind. Hager shows how relatively uneducated men and women made this new means of communication their own, turning writing into an essential medium for sustaining relationships and a sense of belonging. Letter writing changed them and they in turn transformed the culture of letters into a popular, democratic mode of communication.

The Heart of Hell - The Soldiers' Struggle for Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle (Hardcover): Jeffry D. Wert The Heart of Hell - The Soldiers' Struggle for Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle (Hardcover)
Jeffry D. Wert
R968 R765 Discovery Miles 7 650 Save R203 (21%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The struggle over the fortified Confederate position known as Spotsylvania's Mule Shoe was without parallel during the Civil War. A Union assault that began at 4:30 A.M. on May 12, 1864, sparked brutal combat that lasted nearly twenty-four hours. By the time Grant's forces withdrew, some 55,000 men from Union and Confederate armies had been drawn into the fury, battling in torrential rain along the fieldworks at distances often less than the length of a rifle barrel. One Union private recalled the fighting as a "seething, bubbling, soaring hell of hate and murder." By the time Lee's troops established a new fortified line in the predawn hours of May 13, some 17,500 officers and men from both sides had been killed, wounded, or captured when the fighting ceased. The site of the most intense clashes became forever known as the Bloody Angle. Here, renowned military historian Jeffry D. Wert draws on the personal narratives of Union and Confederate troops who survived the fight to offer a gripping story of Civil War combat at its most difficult. Wert's harrowing tale reminds us that the war's story, often told through its commanders and campaigns, truly belonged to the common soldier.

Jews and the Civil War - A Reader (Paperback): Jonathan D. Sarna, Adam D. Mendelsohn Jews and the Civil War - A Reader (Paperback)
Jonathan D. Sarna, Adam D. Mendelsohn
R750 Discovery Miles 7 500 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

At least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges. In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections-Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath-each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

Engineering Victory - How Technology Won the Civil War (Hardcover): Thomas F. Army Engineering Victory - How Technology Won the Civil War (Hardcover)
Thomas F. Army
R1,276 R1,194 Discovery Miles 11 940 Save R82 (6%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Engineering Victory brings a fresh approach to the question of why the North prevailed in the Civil War. Historian Thomas F. Army, Jr., identifies strength in engineering-not superior military strategy or industrial advantage-as the critical determining factor in the war's outcome. Army finds that Union soldiers were able to apply scientific ingenuity and innovation to complex problems in a way that Confederate soldiers simply could not match. Skilled Free State engineers who were trained during the antebellum period benefited from basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices, and a culture that encouraged learning and innovation. During the war, their rapid construction and repair of roads, railways, and bridges allowed Northern troops to pass quickly through the forbidding terrain of the South as retreating and maneuvering Confederates struggled to cut supply lines and stop the Yankees from pressing any advantage. By presenting detailed case studies from both theaters of the war, Army clearly demonstrates how the soldiers' education, training, and talents spelled the difference between success and failure, victory and defeat. He also reveals massive logistical operations as critical in determining the war's outcome.

Civil War Sampler 10-Pack (Book): Fletcher Harper Civil War Sampler 10-Pack (Book)
Fletcher Harper
R481 R422 Discovery Miles 4 220 Save R59 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
When the Texans Came - Missing Records from the Civil War in the Southwest, 1861-1862 (Hardcover, 1st ed): John P. Wilson When the Texans Came - Missing Records from the Civil War in the Southwest, 1861-1862 (Hardcover, 1st ed)
John P. Wilson
R716 R610 Discovery Miles 6 100 Save R106 (15%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The reports and letters brought to light by John P. Wilson in this remarkable collection offer new perspectives on the Civil War in the West. He documents, for example, the activities of Kit Carson, William Brady, and other well known figures whose roles in the Civil War have been incompletely understood; highlights for the first time the dedicated service of native New Mexican officers; unravels the sophisticated espionage (and the brutal executions of suspected spies) carried out by both sides; demonstrates how this national drama took place against the backdrop of ongoing Indian Warswith the Apaches, the Navajos, and even the Kiowasthat ensnared both Union and Confederate armies; and elucidates the unprecedented ways in which the conflict militarized the Southwest for decades.

The 282 letters, song lyrics, casualty lists, intelligence dispatches, transcripts of witness testimony, newspaper accounts, and official reports of battles that appear here build upon the massive anthology of Civil War documentation first published in "War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" (128 volumes, 1881-1901). Wilsons book supplements that source by including previously unavailable materials that historians, scholars, students, and Civil War buffs will find invaluable and intriguing.

Capital Dames - The Civil War And The Women Of Washington, 1848-1868 (Paperback): Cokie Roberts Capital Dames - The Civil War And The Women Of Washington, 1848-1868 (Paperback)
Cokie Roberts
R493 R415 Discovery Miles 4 150 Save R78 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In this engrossing and informative companion to her New York Times bestsellers Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, Cokie Roberts marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War by offering a riveting look at Washington, D.C. and the experiences, influence, and contributions of its women during this momentous period of American history.With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social Southern town of Washington, D.C. found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States.After the declaration of secession, many fascinating Southern women left the city, leaving their friends--such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee--to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital. With their husbands, brothers, and fathers marching off to war, either on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the Capital City to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists. Many risked their lives making munitions in a highly flammable arsenal, toiled at the Treasury Department printing greenbacks to finance the war, and plied their needlework skills at The Navy Yard--once the sole province of men--to sew canvas gunpowder bags for the troops.Cokie Roberts chronicles these women's increasing independence, their political empowerment, their indispensable role in keeping the Union unified through the war, and in helping heal it once the fighting was done. She concludes that the war not only changed Washington, it also forever changed the place of women.Sifting through newspaper articles, government records, and private letters and diaries--many never before published--Roberts brings the war-torn capital into focus through the lives of its formidable women.

The Pirates Laffite - The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf (Paperback, annotated edition): William Davis The Pirates Laffite - The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf (Paperback, annotated edition)
William Davis
R720 R615 Discovery Miles 6 150 Save R105 (15%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

PRAISE FOR HONORABLE DEFEAT
"No other writer has described the death agonies of the lost cause with more authority, brought Breckinridge forward more convincingly, or portrayed Davis's blind determination more clearly than William C. Davis. Once again he has reminded us that American history is not all black and white, or blue and gray--that, especially within the doomed Confederacy, the shading of character ran from nobility to absurdity."--Washington Post Book World
"A well-told story about the death of the Confederate States of America . . . Davis describes it all with verve and authority, and so lends order to what otherwise looks like a chaotic collapse. Having written biographies of both Jefferson Davis and Breckenridge, he knows his two principal players well, and a marvelous supporting case of politicians and soldiers helps him to fashion a story rich in pathos and humor."--The New York Times Book Review
"William C. Davis uses [small incidents] to great effect in 'An Honorable Defeat' . . . . Exciting. "--Wall Street Journal
"Davis tells his story in an open, accessible style, and his action-filled narrative is irresistable. This is popular history at its very best."--Seattle Post Intelligencer

Words of War - The Civil War Battle Reportage of the 'New York Times' & the 'Charleston Mercury'... & What... Words of War - The Civil War Battle Reportage of the 'New York Times' & the 'Charleston Mercury'... & What the Historians Say Really Happened (Hardcover)
Donagh Bracken
R743 R598 Discovery Miles 5 980 Save R145 (20%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

As the divided nation threw its sons into civil war, the home front demanded to know what was happening. Newspapers, North and South, responded by sending special war correspondents into the battlefront with the armies and navies of the Union and Confederacy. They reported what they saw and, in many instances, what they wanted to see. Thus was born American journalism as we know it today. In the North, "The New York Times'" correspondents accompanied the armies of Grant, Sherman, McClellan and other general officers and admirals in the Eastern and Western Theatres. The writings of "Time's" correspondents Franc Wilkie, L L Crounse and many others set the structural standard for American war correspondence as we know it today. In the South, newspapers wrote with greater passion. Chief among the passion providers was the "Charleston Mercury", the spark plug for Southern secession and the arch opposite of "The New York Times". The writings of Robert Barnwell Rhett. Sr. and Jr. and George William Bagby writing as Hermes, brought a blood rush to their readers as they bore their witness to the Civil War. Placed in juxtaposition, the two newspapers capture not only the flavour of the time but also the fever of war. The modern reader can see, as each paper reports the same battle, how political belief alters the view of reality.

Grant (Paperback): Ron Chernow Grant (Paperback)
Ron Chernow 1
R882 Discovery Miles 8 820 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The #1 New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017 "Eminently readable but thick with import . . . Grant hits like a Mack truck of knowledge." -Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency. Before the Civil War, Grant was flailing. His business ventures had ended dismally, and despite distinguished service in the Mexican War he ended up resigning from the army in disgrace amid recurring accusations of drunkenness. But in war, Grant began to realize his remarkable potential, soaring through the ranks of the Union army, prevailing at the battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign, and ultimately defeating the legendary Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Along the way, Grant endeared himself to President Lincoln and became his most trusted general and the strategic genius of the war effort. Grant's military fame translated into a two-term presidency, but one plagued by corruption scandals involving his closest staff members. More important, he sought freedom and justice for black Americans, working to crush the Ku Klux Klan and earning the admiration of Frederick Douglass, who called him "the vigilant, firm, impartial, and wise protector of my race." After his presidency, he was again brought low by a dashing young swindler on Wall Street, only to resuscitate his image by working with Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which are recognized as a masterpiece of the genre. With lucidity, breadth, and meticulousness, Chernow finds the threads that bind these disparate stories together, shedding new light on the man whom Walt Whitman described as "nothing heroic... and yet the greatest hero." Chernow's probing portrait of Grant's lifelong struggle with alcoholism transforms our understanding of the man at the deepest level. This is America's greatest biographer, bringing movingly to life one of our finest but most underappreciated presidents. The definitive biography, Grant is a grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that makes sense of all sides of Grant's life, explaining how this simple Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary. Named one of the best books of the year by Goodreads * Amazon * The New York Times * Newsday * BookPage * Barnes and Noble * Wall Street Journal

American Civil War For Dummies, 2nd Edition (Paperback, 2nd Edition): Kd Dickson American Civil War For Dummies, 2nd Edition (Paperback, 2nd Edition)
Kd Dickson
R566 R409 Discovery Miles 4 090 Save R157 (28%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Take a walk through history with this guide for lifelong learners The American Civil War is one of the most fascinating and impactful periods in American history. Besides bringing about the end of slavery, the war had many important economic and social effects that continue to shape the history and present-day realities of the American people. In American Civil War For Dummies, you'll get an accessible, bird's-eye view of one of history's greatest conflicts. All the must-know details of the war are covered here, from the Battle of Gettysburg to the Emancipation Proclamation. You'll also find: Descriptions of the experiences of Black Americans, in both the North and the South, during the war Explorations of how slavery and civil rights fit into the social, political, and economic context of the time Profiles of some of the most famous generals in the war, including Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant Take a moment to get a hands-on education in this critical point in American history. Get American Civil War For Dummies now!

Force and Freedom - Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (Paperback): Kellie Carter Jackson Force and Freedom - Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (Paperback)
Kellie Carter Jackson
R730 Discovery Miles 7 300 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

From its origins in the 1750s, the white-led American abolitionist movement adhered to principles of "moral suasion" and nonviolent resistance as both religious tenet and political strategy. But by the 1850s, the population of enslaved Americans had increased exponentially, and such legislative efforts as the Fugitive Slave Act and the Supreme Court's 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott case effectively voided any rights black Americans held as enslaved or free people. As conditions deteriorated for African Americans, black abolitionist leaders embraced violence as the only means of shocking Northerners out of their apathy and instigating an antislavery war. In Force and Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the bourgeoning black press, and the formation of militia groups, black abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national action, and drew international attention. Drawing on the precedent and pathos of the American and Haitian Revolutions, African American abolitionists used violence as a political language and a means of provoking social change. Through tactical violence, argues Carter Jackson, black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.

Worthy of Record - The Civil War and Reconstruction Diaries of Columbus Lafayette Turner (Hardcover): Kenrick N. Simpson Worthy of Record - The Civil War and Reconstruction Diaries of Columbus Lafayette Turner (Hardcover)
Kenrick N. Simpson
R688 R580 Discovery Miles 5 800 Save R108 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Battlefields of the Civil War (Paperback, New edition): William C Davis The Battlefields of the Civil War (Paperback, New edition)
William C Davis
R1,072 Discovery Miles 10 720 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

"The Battlefields of the Civil War" tells the stories of thirteen of the most important battles, including First Manassas, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness.

William C. Davis not only describes the events and outcomes of those great engagements, but also delves into the characters of the army commanders, revealing in many cases just how much their personalities influenced the actions of their subordinates - and ultimately the outcome of the battles themselves. Rounding out the narrative are 35 full-page color photograph spreads of Civil War artifacts (including flags, uniforms, artillery projectiles, and arms), 28 color paintings of soldiers in various regiment uniforms, and 166 historical photographs.

Catholic Confederates - Faith and Duty in the Civil War South (Hardcover): Gracjan Kraszewski Catholic Confederates - Faith and Duty in the Civil War South (Hardcover)
Gracjan Kraszewski
R1,161 Discovery Miles 11 610 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

How did Southern Catholics, under international religious authority and grounding unlike Southern Protestants, act with regard to political commitments in the recently formed Confederacy? How did they balance being both Catholic and Confederate? How is the Southern Catholic Civil War experience similar or dissimilar to the Southern Protestant Civil War experience? What new insights might this experience provide regarding Civil War religious history, the history of Catholicism in America, 19th-century America, and Southern history in general?For the majority of Southern Catholics, religion and politics were not a point of tension. Devout Catholics were also devoted Confederates, including nuns who served as nurses; their deep involvement in the Confederate cause as medics confirms the all-encompassing nature of Catholic involvement in the Confederacy, a fact greatly underplayed by scholars of Civil war religion and American Catholicism. Kraszewski argues against an "Americanization" of Catholics in the South and instead coins the term "Confederatization" to describe the process by which Catholics made themselves virtually indistinguishable from their Protestant neighbors. The religious history of the South has been primarily Protestant. Catholic Confederates simultaneously fills a gap in Civil War religious scholarship and in American Catholic literature by bringing to light the deep impact Catholicism has had on Southern society even in the very heart of the Bible Belt.

The Field of Blood - Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (Paperback): Joanne B. Freeman The Field of Blood - Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (Paperback)
Joanne B. Freeman
R533 R444 Discovery Miles 4 440 Save R89 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn't happen in a vacuum. Freeman's dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities - the feel, sense, and sound of it - as well as its nation-shaping import. The result is riveting - and it reveals fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.

Gettysburg - This Hallowed Ground (Hardcover, Illustrated Ed): Kent Gramm Gettysburg - This Hallowed Ground (Hardcover, Illustrated Ed)
Kent Gramm
R618 R467 Discovery Miles 4 670 Save R151 (24%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Gettysburg is a paradox: Today it is beautiful, still, and filled with visitors, yet this national military park serves as a powerful reminder of the clash of armies and the great loss of life that took place here nearly 150 years ago. Gettysburg: This Hallowed Ground explores this Civil War battleground through contemporary photographs by National Merit Award-winning photographer Chris Heisey and poems by noted Civil War author Kent Gramm. A brief synopsis of the Battle of Gettysburg and a map of the battlefield introduce the book. Gettysburg is a tribute to the soldiers who gave their lives here and to the military park that is a lasting reminder of our country's most devastating battle.

Confederate Cavalryman vs Union Cavalryman - Eastern Theater 1861-65 (Paperback): Ron Field Confederate Cavalryman vs Union Cavalryman - Eastern Theater 1861-65 (Paperback)
Ron Field; Illustrated by Peter Dennis
R451 R366 Discovery Miles 3 660 Save R85 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

During the intense, sprawling conflict that was the American Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces fielded substantial numbers of cavalry, which carried out the crucial tasks of reconnaissance, raiding, and conveying messages. The perception was that cavalry's effectiveness on the battlefield would be drastically reduced in this age of improved infantry firearms. This title, however, demonstrates how cavalry's lethal combination of mobility and dismounted firepower meant it was still very much a force to be reckoned with in battle, and charts the swing in the qualitative difference of the cavalry forces fielded by the two sides as the war progressed. In this book, three fierce cavalry actions of the American Civil War are assessed, including the battles of Second Bull Run/Manassas (1862), Buckland Mills (1863) and Tom's Brook (1864).

A People's History Of The Civil War - Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom (Paperback): David Williams A People's History Of The Civil War - Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom (Paperback)
David Williams
R756 R654 Discovery Miles 6 540 Save R102 (13%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The acclaimed sweeping history of a nation at war with itself, told here for the first time by the people who lived it.
Bottom-up history at its very best, "A People's History of the Civil War" "does for the Civil War period what Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" did for the study of American history in general" ("Library Journal"). Widely praised upon its initial release, it was described as "meticulously researched and persuasively argued" by the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution,"
Historian David Williams has written the first account of the American Civil War though the eyes of ordinary people--foot soldiers, slaves, women, prisoners of war, draft resisters, Native Americans, and others. Richly illustrated with little-known anecdotes and first-hand testimony, this pathbreaking narrative moves beyond presidents and generals to tell a new and powerful story about America's most destructive conflict.
"A People's History of the Civil War" is "readable social history" which "sheds fascinating light" ("Publishers Weekly") on this crucial period. In so doing it recovers the long-overlooked perspectives and forgotten voices of one of the defining chapters of American history. Forty b/w images.

Gettysburg - The History of the Battle in Maps (Paperback): The Editors of Stackpole Books Gettysburg - The History of the Battle in Maps (Paperback)
The Editors of Stackpole Books
R685 R577 Discovery Miles 5 770 Save R108 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The Battle of Gettysburg has never been seen like this - in a series of 70 crystal-clear color maps, each of which shows the same 3.5-by-4.5 mile section of the battlefield, allowing the reader to visualize the three-day battle as it developed across the entire field, from troop arrivals, movements, and attacks to key engagements and locations of commanders. This unique approach sheds new light on important events such as the first clash west of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, the fighting for Little Round Top on July 2, and Pickett's Charge on July 3. Alongside the maps, a crisp narrative tells the story of the battle. A perfect companion for battlefield visits and armchair-general debates, the book is also an ideal introduction for newcomers while its fresh perspectives will appeal to those who have read every book on the battle.

The Scourge of War - The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman (Hardcover): Brian Holden Reid The Scourge of War - The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman (Hardcover)
Brian Holden Reid
R905 Discovery Miles 9 050 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war. A definitive biography of a preeminent military figure by a renowned military historian, The Scourge of War is a masterful account of Sherman' life that fully recognizes his intellect, strategy, and actions during the Civil War.

Damn Yankees! - Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South (Hardcover): George C Rable Damn Yankees! - Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South (Hardcover)
George C Rable
R943 R759 Discovery Miles 7 590 Save R184 (20%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

During the Civil War, southerners produced a vast body of writing about their northern foes, painting a picture of a money-grubbing, puritanical, and infidel enemy. Damn Yankees! explores the proliferation of this rhetoric and demonstrates how the perpetual vilification of northerners became a weapon during the war, fostering hatred and resistance among the people of the Confederacy. Drawing from speeches, cartoons, editorials, letters, and diaries, Damn Yankees! examines common themes in southern excoriation of the enemy. In sharp contrast to the presumed southern ideals of chivalry and honor, Confederates claimed that Yankees were rootless vagabonds who placed profit ahead of fidelity to religious and social traditions. Pervasive criticism of northerners created a framework for understanding their behavior during the war. When the Confederacy prevailed on the field of battle, it confirmed the Yankees' reputed physical and moral weakness. When the Yankees achieved military success, reports of depravity against vanquished foes abounded, stiffening the resolve of Confederate soldiers and civilians alike to protect their homeland and the sanctity of their women from Union degeneracy. From award-winning Civil War historian George C. Rable, Damn Yankees! is the first comprehensive study of anti-Union speech and writing, the ways these words shaped perceptions of and events in the war, and the rhetoric's enduring legacy in the South after the conflict had ended.

Newest Born of Nations - European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy (Hardcover): Ann L Tucker Newest Born of Nations - European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy (Hardcover)
Ann L Tucker
R1,154 Discovery Miles 11 540 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

From the earliest stirrings of southern nationalism to the defeat of the Confederacy, analysis of European nationalist movements played a critical role in how southerners thought about their new southern nation. Southerners argued that because the Confederate nation was cast in the same mold as its European counterparts, it deserved independence. In Newest Born of Nations, Ann Tucker utilizes print sources such as newspapers and magazines to reveal how elite white southerners developed an international perspective on nationhood that helped them clarify their own national values, conceive of the South as distinct from the North, and ultimately define and legitimize the Confederacy. While popular at home, claims to equivalency with European nations failed to resonate with Europeans and northerners, who viewed slavery as incompatible with liberal nationalism. Forced to reevaluate their claims about the international place of southern nationalism, some southerners redoubled their attempts to place the Confederacy within the broader trends of nineteenth-century nationalism. More conservative southerners took a different tack, emphasizing the distinctiveness of their nationalism, claiming that the Confederacy actually purified nationalism through slavery. Southern Unionists likewise internationalized their case for national unity. By examining the evolution of and variation within these international perspectives, Tucker reveals the making of a southern nationhood to be a complex, contested process.

The Gray Fox - George Crook and the Indian Wars (Paperback): Paul Magid The Gray Fox - George Crook and the Indian Wars (Paperback)
Paul Magid
R956 Discovery Miles 9 560 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

George Crook was one of the most prominent military figures of the late-nineteenth-century Indian Wars. Yet today his name is largely unrecognized despite the important role he played in such pivotal events in western history as the Custer fight at the Little Big Horn, the death of Crazy Horse, and the Geronimo campaigns. As Paul Magid portrays Crook in this highly readable second volume of a projected three-volume biography, the general was an innovative and eccentric soldier, with a complex and often contradictory personality, whose activities often generated intense controversy. Though known for his uncompromising ferocity in battle, he nevertheless respected his enemies and grew to know and feel compassion for them. Describing campaigns against the Paiutes, Apaches, Sioux, and Cheyennes, Magid's vivid narrative explores Crook's abilities as an Indian fighter. The Apaches, among the fiercest peoples in the West, called Crook the Gray Fox after an animal viewed in their culture as a herald of impending death. Generals Grant and Sherman both regarded him as indispensable to their efforts to subjugate the western tribes. Though noted for his aggressiveness in combat, Crook was a reticent officer who rarely raised his voice, habitually dressed in shabby civilian attire, and often rode a mule in the field. He was also self-confident to the point of arrogance, harbored fierce grudges, and because he marched to his own beat, got along poorly with his superiors. He had many enduring friendships both in- and outside the army, though he divulged little of his inner self to others and some of his closest comrades knew he could be cold and insensitive. As Magid relates these crucial episodes of Crook's life, a dominant contradiction emerges: while he was an unforgiving warrior in the field, he not infrequently risked his career to do battle with his military superiors and with politicians in Washington to obtain fair treatment for the very people against whom he fought. Upon hearing of the general's death in 1890, Chief Red Cloud spoke for his Sioux people: ""He, at least, never lied to us. His words gave the people hope.

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