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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Civil war
In early seventeenth-century Spain, the Castilian parliament
voted to elevate the newly beatified Teresa of Avila to co-patron
saint of Spain alongside the traditional patron, Santiago. Saint
and Nation examines Spanish devotion to the cult of saints and the
controversy over national patron sainthood to provide an original
account of the diverse ways in which the early modern nation was
expressed and experienced by monarch and town, center and
periphery. By analyzing the dynamic interplay of local and
extra-local, royal authority and nation, tradition and modernity,
church and state, and masculine and feminine within the
co-patronage debate, Erin Rowe reconstructs the sophisticated
balance of plural identities that emerged in Castile during a
central period of crisis and change in the Spanish world.
Turncoats and Renegadoes is the first dedicated study of the
practice of changing sides during the English Civil Wars. It
examines the extent and significance of side-changing in England
and Wales but also includes comparative material from Scotland and
Ireland. The first half identifies side-changers among peers, MPs,
army officers, and common soldiers, before reconstructing the
chronological and regional patterns to their defections. The second
half delivers a cultural history of treachery, by adopting a
thematic approach to explore the social and cultural implications
of defections, and demonstrating how notions of what constituted a
turncoat were culturally constructed. Side-changing came to
dominate strategy on both sides at the highest levels. Both sides
reviled, yet sought to take advantage of the practice, whilst
allegations of treachery came to dominate the internal politics of
royalists and parliamentarians alike. The language applied to
'turncoats and renegadoes' in contemporary print is discussed and
contrasted with the self-justifications of the side-changers
themselves as they sought to shape an honourable self-image for
their families and posterity. Andrew Hopper investigates the
implementation of military justice, along with the theatre of
retribution surrounding the trial and execution of turncoats. He
concludes by arguing that, far from side-changing being the dubious
practice of a handful of aberrant individuals, it became a
necessary survival strategy for thousands as they navigated their
way through such rapidly changing events. He reveals how
side-changing shaped the course of the English Revolution, even
contributing to the regicide itself, and remained an important
political legacy to the English speaking peoples thereafter.
C. Vann Woodward is one of the most significant historians of the
post-Reconstruction South. Over his career of nearly seven decades,
he wrote nine books; won the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes; penned
hundreds of book reviews, opinion pieces, and scholarly essays; and
gained national and international recognition as a public
intellectual. Even today historians must contend with Woodward's
sweeping interpretations about southern history. What is less known
about Woodward is his scholarly interest in the history of white
antebellum southern dissenters, the immediate consequences of
emancipation, and the history of Reconstruction in the years prior
to the Compromise of 1877. Woodward addressed these topics in three
mid-century lecture series that have never before been published.
The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward presents for the first time
lectures that showcase his life-long interest in exploring the
contours and limits of nineteenth-century liberalism during key
moments of social upheaval in the South. Historians Natalie J. Ring
and Sarah E. Gardner analyze these works, drawing on
correspondence, published and unpublished material, and Woodward's
personal notes. They also chronicle his failed attempts to finish a
much-awaited comprehensive history of Reconstruction and reflect on
the challenges of writing about the failures of post-Civil War
American society during the civil rights era, dubbed the Second
Reconstruction. With an insightful foreword by eminent Southern
historian Edward L. Ayers, The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward
offers new perspectives on this towering authority on nineteenth-
and twentieth-century southern history and his attempts to make
sense of the past amidst the tumultuous times in which he lived.
Of the many books written about the Battle of Gettysburg, none has
included selections from the collected memoirs of the 238
chaplains, North and South, who were present at the battle-until
now. Because chaplains were considered noncombatants, most, with
the exception of Father William Corby of the Irish Brigade, were
largely ignored. This unique study has brought to light many of the
observations of clergymen, protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, who
accompanied their regiments wherever they marched, camped, or
fought. Some of the memoirs have never been published, others
unnoticed for a century. Because this is the first book to approach
the Battle of Gettysburg from this perspective, rosters of Union
and Confederate chaplains reportedly present at the battle are also
included. To establish reference points for the chaplains' memoirs,
they have been placed in the context of the three-day battle
itself, a bloody conflict Father James Sheeran of the 14th
Louisiana Infantry characterized as a time when he could not have
been more frightened "Had Hell itself broken its boundaries."
Chaplain randolph McKim of the 2nd virginia Cavalry thought that on
the firing line he had nothing to do but sit on his horse and be
shot at. After the battle was over, however, chaplains became very
busy. They helped bury the dead and comfort 21,000 wounded
soldiers. The chaplains themselves did not escape injury. Four
chaplains had been killed, wounded, or injured and eighteen
captured to be detained in prisons. This is their story in their
own words.
In 1861, young Presbyterian minister John D. Kirkpatrick-following
in his grandfather and great grandfather's footsteps-was preaching
at his first church near Nashville. At that time, war fever was
raging even before Tennessee seceded. It was no surprise that John
would enlist in the Confederate Army; like many in the South, his
family had a long tradition of military service to their country. A
year later, John became a captain in the Ninth Tennessee Cavalry,
which soon was attached to Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
Tennessee Preacher, Tennessee Soldier is a carefully researched
book that takes us through the years of the Civil War. It's the
story of a man who was embroiled in bloody battles, bold raids, and
daring escape-all the while living up to his religious values even
under the stresses of war. Upon his return home, John successfully
led several churches in Nashville, taught theology at Cumberland
University in Lebanon, and published a newspaper. John D.
Kirkpatrick lived a life of purpose and principle, and this is his
story.
This is one volume in a library of Confederate States history, in
twelve volumes, written by distinguished men of the South, and
edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. A generation after the
Civil War, the Southern protagonists wanted to tell their story,
and in 1899 these twelve volumes appeared under the imprint of the
Confederate Publishing Company. The first and last volumes comprise
such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in
seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the
Confederate States government; the history of the actions and
concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its
policy in securing the territorial dominion of the United States;
the civil history of the Confederate States; Confederate naval
history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a
connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to
its close. The other ten volumes each treat a separate State with
details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its
heroes, and its battlefields. Volume 3 is Virginia.
The history of the modern U.S. Capitol, the iconic seat of American
government, is also the history of America's most tumultuous years.
As the majestic new building rose above Washington's skyline,
battles over slavery and secession ripped the country apart. Ground
was broken just months after Congress adopted the Compromise of
1850. Workers began to bolt the Capitol's nine-million-pound
cast-iron dome into place in 1856. The Statue of Freedom was placed
atop it in 1863, five months after the Battle of Gettysburg. Little
known is the greater irony: America owes the building's scale and
magnificence to Jefferson Davis, who remained the Capitol's
staunchest advocate up until the week he left Washington to become
president of the Confederacy. Davis' protege and the engineer in
charge was army captain Montgomery Meigs, who as Lincoln's
quartermaster general of the Union Army would never forgive Davis'
betrayal of the nation. The Capitol's brilliant architect, and
Meigs' longtime rival, was Thomas U. Walter, a Southern sympathizer
who would turn fiercely against the South and all who had betrayed
the Union.
Finalist for the 2011 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize "A seminal work.
. . . One of the best examples of new, sophisticated scholarship on
the social history of Civil War soldiers." -The Journal of Southern
History "Will undoubtedly, and properly, be read as the latest word
on the role of manhood in the internal dynamics of the Union army."
-Journal of the Civil War Era During the Civil War, the Union army
appeared cohesive enough to withstand four years of grueling war
against the Confederates and to claim victory in 1865. But
fractiousness bubbled below the surface of the North's presumably
united front. Internal fissures were rife within the Union army:
class divisions, regional antagonisms, ideological differences, and
conflicting personalities all distracted the army from quelling the
Southern rebellion. In this highly original contribution to Civil
War and gender history, Lorien Foote reveals that these internal
battles were fought against the backdrop of manhood. Clashing
ideals of manliness produced myriad conflicts, as when educated,
refined, and wealthy officers ("gentlemen") found themselves
commanding a hard-drinking group of fighters ("roughs")-a dynamic
that often resulted in violence and even death. Based on extensive
research into heretofore ignored primary sources, The Gentlemen and
the Roughs uncovers holes in our understanding of the men who
fought the Civil War and the society that produced them.
The Spanish Civil War left a legacy of destruction, resentment and
deep ideological divisions in a country that was attempting to
recover from economic stagnation and social inequality. After
Franco's victory, the repression and purge that ensued immersed
Spain in a spiral of fear and silence which continued long after
the dictator's death, through 'the pact of oblivion' that was
observed during the transition to democracy. Memories of the
Spanish Civil War: Conflict and Community in Rural Spain attempts
to break this silence by recovering the local memories of survivors
of the Civil War and the early years of Franco's dictatorship.
Combining oral testimony gathered in one Andalusian village, with
archival research, this ethnographic study approaches the
expression of memory as an important site of socio-political
struggle.
This richly detailed biography of Andrew Jackson Donelson
(1799-1871) sheds new light on the political and personal life of
this nephew and namesake of Andrew Jackson. A scion of a pioneering
Tennessee family, Donelson was a valued assistant and trusted
confidant of the man who defined the Age of Jackson. One of those
central but background figures of history, Donelson had a knack for
being where important events were happening and knew many of the
great figures of the age. As his uncle's secretary, he weathered
Old Hickory's tumultuous presidency, including the notorious
""Petticoat War."" Building his own political career, he served as
US charge d'affaires to the Republic of Texas, where he struggled
against an enigmatic President Sam Houston, British and French
intrigues, and the threat of war by Mexico, to achieve annexation.
As minister to Prussia, Donelson enjoyed a ringside seat to the
revolutions of 1848 and the first attempts at German unification. A
firm Unionist in the mold of his uncle, Donelson denounced the
secessionists at the Nashville Convention of 1850. He attempted as
editor of the Washington Union to reunite the Democratic party,
and, when he failed, he was nominated as Millard Fillmore's
vice-presidential running mate on the Know Nothing party ticket in
1856. He lived to see the Civil War wreck the Union he loved,
devastate his farms, and take the lives of two of his sons.
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