In Civil War Humor, author Cameron C. Nickels examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humor was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the conflict. Song lyrics, newspaper columns, sheet music covers, illustrations, political cartoons, fiction, light verse, paper dolls, printed envelopes, and penny dreadfuls-from and for the Union and the Confederacy-are analyzed at length. Nickels argues that the war coincided with the rise of inexpensive mass printing in the United States and thus subsequently with the rise of the country's widely distributed popular culture. As such, the war was as much a "paper war"-involving the use of publications to disseminate propaganda and ideas about the Union and the Confederacy's positions-as one taking place on battlefields. Humor was a key element on both sides in deflating pretensions and establishing political stances (and ways of critiquing them). Civil War Humor explores how the combatants portrayed Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, life on the home front, battles, and African Americans. Civil War Humor reproduces over sixty illustrations and texts created during the war and provides close readings of these materials. At the same time, it places this corpus of comedy in the context of wartime history, economies, and tactics. This comprehensive overview examines humor's role in shaping and reflecting the cultural imagination of the nation during its most tumultuous period.

Speaking in 1957, Evelyn Waugh commented that Hemingway was "really at heart a Catholic author."
In this groundbreaking study, Matthew Nickel explores Hemingway's Catholic faith through close scrutiny of his fiction and other writings. Using previously unpublished Hemingway letters, Nickel reveals how Hemingway's profound sacramental sense of ritual, pilgrimage and sacrifice informed his work ... and his life.
""Matthew Nickel is a thorough and careful scholar. He has delved beneath the surface and has found a treasure trove of meaning. This book will enrich every reader's understanding of Hemingway, the man and his work."" - Valerie Hemingway, author of "Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways"
""Nickel's scholarship is impeccable, thoroughgoing and perspicacious. ... A cutting-edge study of the most urgent concerns of one of our greatest writers."" - H.R. Stoneback, Distinguished Professor English, SUNY New Paltz
""Nickel has written a very strong Catholic reading of all of Hemingway, grounded in lucid textuality and exhaustive research."" - Allen Josephs, past president of the Hemingway Foundation and Society, author of "Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida"