"This type of work would be especially valuable for assignment in
the classroom."
--"North & South"
"Understanding what convinced Civil War soldiers to lay down
their lives for "the cause," North AND South, is perhaps the
hardest part of teaching about making sense of the war. This
excellent collection of selections from leading scholars on who the
soldiers were, how they lived, and why they fought is a fine
introduction to years of research that seeks to answer that
question."
--Janet Coryell, Western Michigan University
"Presenting a variety of viewpoints, the book will be of
interest to all Civil War devotees."
--"Booklist," August 2002
aThis is a fine collection which lends itself to classroom use
and to the edification of non-specialists.a
-- Indiana Magazine of History
"In The Civil War Soldier: A Historical Reader, Michael Barton
and Larry M. Logue present a valuable anthology of classic works
and recent scholarship on the rank and file."
--"The Journal of Southern History"
"This is a nice anthology, embodying much of the best available
work on the Civil War soldier. It is a fine addition to the
personal library, the university library, and to many a course
syllabus."
--"Journal of Military History"
"This Civil War sampler combines 19th-century battlefield
accounts with past and contemporary scholoarship to offer a broad
perspective on the historiographical issues scholars have raised
concerning the soldiers' total experience."--"Library Journal"
In 1943, Bell Wiley's groundbreaking book "Johnny Reb" launched
a new area of study: the history of the common soldier in the U.S.
Civil War. This anthology brings together landmarkscholarship on
the subject, from a 19th century account of life as a soldier to
contemporary work on women who, disguised as men, joined the
army.
One of the only available compilations on the subject, The Civil
War Soldier answers a wide range of provocative questions: What
were the differences between Union and Confederate soldiers? What
were soldiers' motivations for joining the army--their "will to
combat"? How can we evaluate the psychological impact of military
service on individual morale? Is there a basis for comparison
between the experiences of Civil War soldiers and those who fought
in World War II or Vietnam? How did the experiences of black
soldiers in the Union army differ from those of their white
comrades? And why were southern soldiers especially drawn to
evangelical preaching?
Offering a host of diverse perspectives on these issues, The
Civil War Soldier is the perfect introduction to the topic, for the
student and the Civil War enthusiast alike.
Contributors: Michael Barton, Eric T. Dean, David Donald, Drew
Gilpin Faust, Joseph Allen Frank, James W. Geary, Joseph T.
Glaatthaar, Paddy Griffith, Earl J. Hess, Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, Perry D. Jamieson, Elizabeth D. Leonard, Gerald F.
Linderman, Larry Logue, Pete Maslowski, Carlton McCarthy, James M.
McPherson, Grady McWhiney, Reid Mitchell, George A. Reaves, Jr.,
James I. Robertson, Fred A. Shannon, Maris A. Vinovskis, and Bell
Irvin Wiley.