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Ersatz in the Confederacy - Shortages and Substitutes on the Southern Homefront (Paperback)
Loot Price: R743
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Ersatz in the Confederacy - Shortages and Substitutes on the Southern Homefront (Paperback)
Series: Southern Classics
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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First published by the University of South Carolina in 1952, Ersatz
in the Confederacy remains the definitive study of the South's
desperate struggle to overcome critical shortages of food,
medicine, clothing, household goods, farming supplies, and tools
during the Civil War. Mary Elizabeth Massey's seminal work
carefully documents the ingenuity of the Confederates as they coped
with shortages of manufactured goods and essential
commodities--including grain, coffee, sugar, and butter--that
previously had been imported from the northern states or from
England. Creative Southerners substituted sawdust for soap, pigs'
tails and ears for Christmas tree ornaments, leaves for mattress
stuffing, okra seeds for coffee beans, and gourds for cups. Women
made clothing from scraps of material, blankets from carpets, shoes
from leather saddles and furniture, and battle flags from wedding
dresses. Despite the Confederates' penchant for "making do" and
"doing without," Massey's research reveals the devastating impact
of war's shortages on the South's civilian population. Overly
optimistic that they could easily transform a rural economy into a
self-sufficient manufacturing power, Southerners suffered from both
disappointment and hardship as it became clear that their
expectations were unrealistic. Ersatz in the Confederacy's lasting
significance lies in Masseys clearly documented conclusion that
despite the resourcefulness of the Southern people, the Confederate
cause was lost not at Gettysburg nor in any other military
engagement but much earlier and more decisively in the homefront
battle against scarcity and deprivation.
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