Historians have long assumed that ethnic and racial divisions in
post–Civil War America were reflected in the U.S. Army, of whose
enlistees 40 percent were foreign-born. Now Kevin Adams shows that
the frontier army was characterized by a “Victorian class
divide” that overshadowed ethnic prejudices.Class and Race in the
Frontier Army marks the first application of recent research on
class, race, and ethnicity to the social and cultural history of
military life on the western frontier. Adams draws on a wealth of
military records and soldiers’ diaries and letters to reconstruct
everyday army life—from work and leisure to consumption,
intellectual pursuits, and political activity—and shows that an
inflexible class barrier stood between officers and enlisted men.
As Adams relates, officers lived in relative opulence while
enlistees suffered poverty, neglect, and abuse. Although racism was
ingrained in official policy and informal behavior, no similar
prejudice colored the experience of soldiers who were immigrants.
Officers and enlisted men paid much less attention to ethnic
differences than to social class—officers flaunting and
protecting their status, enlisted men seething with class
resentment. Treating the army as a laboratory to better understand
American society in the Gilded Age, Adams suggests that military
attitudes mirrored civilian life in that era—with enlisted men,
especially, illustrating the emerging class-consciousness among the
working poor. Class and Race in the Frontier Army offers fresh
insight into the interplay of class, race, and ethnicity in
late-nineteenth-century America.
General
Imprint: |
University of Oklahoma Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
August 2023 |
Authors: |
Kevin Adams
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Pages: |
296 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8061-9314-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8061-9314-X |
Barcode: |
9780806193144 |
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