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A panoramic collection of essays written by both established and
emerging scholars, American Discord examines critical aspects of
the Civil War era, including rhetoric and nationalism, politics and
violence, gender, race, and religion. Beginning with an overview of
the political culture of the 1860s, the collection reveals that
most Americans entered the decade opposed to political compromise.
Essays from Megan L. Bever, Glenn David Brasher, Lawrence A.
Kreiser Jr., and Christian McWhirter discuss the rancorous
political climate of the day and the sense of racial superiority
woven into the political fabric of the era. Shifting focus to the
actual war, Rachel K. Deale, Lindsay Rae Privette, Adam H. Petty,
and A. Wilson Greene contribute essays on internal conflict, lack
of compromise, and commitment to white supremacy. Here,
contributors adopt a broad understanding of ""battle,"" considering
environmental effects and the impact of the war after the battles
were over. Essays by Laura Mammina and Charity Rakestraw and
Kristopher A. Teters reveal that while the war blurred the
boundaries, it ultimately prompted Americans to grasp for the
familiar established hierarchies of gender and race. Examinations
of chaos and internal division suggest that the political culture
of Reconstruction was every bit as contentious as the war itself.
Former Confederates decried the barbarity of their Yankee
conquerors, while Republicans portrayed Democrats as backward rubes
in need of civilizing. Essays by Kevin L. Hughes, Daniel J. Burge,
T. Robert Hart, John F. Marszalek, and T. Michael Parrish highlight
Americans' continued reliance on hyperbolic rhetoric. American
Discord embraces a multifaceted view of the Civil War and its
aftermath, attempting to capture the complicated human experiences
of the men and women caught in the conflict. These essays
acknowledge that ordinary people and their experiences matter, and
the dynamics among family members, friends, and enemies have
far-reaching consequences.
A sweeping historiographical collection, Reinterpreting Southern
Histories updates and expands upon the iconic volumes Writing
Southern History and Interpreting Southern History, both published
by Louisiana State University Press. With nineteen original essays
co-written by some of the most prominent historians working in
southern history today, this volume boldly explores the current
state, methods, innovations, and prospects of the richly diverse
and transforming field of southern history. Two scholars at
different stages of their careers coauthor each essay, working
collaboratively to provide broad knowledge of the most recent
historiography and an expansive vision for historiographical
contexts. This innovative approach provides an intellectual
connection with the earlier volumes while reflecting cutting-edge
scholarship in the field. Underlying each essay is the cultural
turn of the 1980s and 1990s, which introduced the use of language
and cultural symbols and the influence of gender studies,
postcolonial studies, and memory studies. The essays also rely less
on framing the South as a distinct region and more on
contextualizing it within national and global conversations.
Reinterpreting Southern Histories, like the two classic volumes
that preceded it, serves as both a comprehensive analysis of the
current historiography of the South and a reinterpretation of that
history, reaching new conclusions for enduring questions and
establishing the parameters of future debates.
In The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1970) and The
Confederate Nation (1979), Emory Thomas redefined the field of
Civil War history and reconceptualized the Confederacy as a unique
entity fighting a war for survival. Today scholars continue to
build on Thomas's work. Inside the Confederate Nation honors his
enormous contributions to the field with fresh interpretations of
all aspects of Confederate life--nationalism and identity, family
and gender, battlefront and homefront, race, and postwar legacies
and memories. Many of the volume's twenty essays focus on
individuals, households, communities, and particular regions of the
South, highlighting the sheer variety of circumstances southerners
faced over the course of the war. Other chapters explore the public
and private dilemmas confronted by diplomats, policy makers,
journalists, and soldiers within the new nation. All of the essays
attempt to explain the place of southerners within the Confederacy,
how they came to see themselves and others differently because of
the new nation, and the disparities between their expectations and
reality. Contributors include James M. McPherson, William C. Davis,
Joseph T. Glatthaar, and many other prominent and rising scholars.
This exciting new collection continues the interpretive debates
Thomas's work first inspired thirty-five years ago, affirming his
lasting influence on Civil War history.
The American Civil War was the first military conflict in history
to be fought with railroads moving troops and the telegraph
connecting civilian leadership to commanders in the field. New
developments arose at a moment’s notice. As a result, the young
nation’s political structure and culture often struggled to keep
up. When war began, Congress was not even in session. By the time
it met, the government had mobilized over 100,000 soldiers, battles
had been fought, casualties had been taken, some civilians had
violently opposed the war effort, and emancipation was under way.
This set the stage for Congress to play catch-up for much of the
conflict. The result was an ongoing race to pass new laws and set
policies. Throughout it all, Congress had to answer to a fractured
and demanding public. In addition, Congress, no longer paralyzed by
large numbers of Southern slave owners, moved forward on
progressive economic and social issues—such as the
transcontinental railroad and the land grant college act—which
could not previously have been passed. In Congress and the
People’s Contest, Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon have
assembled some of the nation’s finest scholars of American
history and law to evaluate the interactions between Congress and
the American people as they navigated a cataclysmic and
unprecedented war. Displaying a variety and range of focus that
will make the book a classroom must, these essays show how these
interactions took place—sometimes successfully, and sometimes
less so. Contributors: L. Diane Barnes, Fergus M. Bordewich, Jenny
Bourne, Jonathan Earle, Lesley J. Gordon, Mischa Honeck, Chandra
Manning, Nikki M. Taylor, and Eric Walther.
The American Civil War was the first military conflict in history
to be fought with railroads moving troops and the telegraph
connecting civilian leadership to commanders in the field. New
developments arose at a moment’s notice. As a result, the young
nation’s political structure and culture often struggled to keep
up. When war began, Congress was not even in session. By the time
it met, the government had mobilized over 100,000 soldiers, battles
had been fought, casualties had been taken, some civilians had
violently opposed the war effort, and emancipation was under way.
This set the stage for Congress to play catch-up for much of the
conflict. The result was an ongoing race to pass new laws and set
policies. Throughout it all, Congress had to answer to a fractured
and demanding public. In addition, Congress, no longer paralyzed by
large numbers of Southern slave owners, moved forward on
progressive economic and social issues—such as the
transcontinental railroad and the land grant college act—which
could not previously have been passed. In Congress and the
People’s Contest, Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon have
assembled some of the nation’s finest scholars of American
history and law to evaluate the interactions between Congress and
the American people as they navigated a cataclysmic and
unprecedented war. Displaying a variety and range of focus that
will make the book a classroom must, these essays show how these
interactions took place—sometimes successfully, and sometimes
less so. Contributors: L. Diane Barnes, Fergus M. Bordewich, Jenny
Bourne, Jonathan Earle, Lesley J. Gordon, Mischa Honeck, Chandra
Manning, Nikki M. Taylor, and Eric Walther.
A soldier, his widow, and their story; The man who gave his name to
the greatest failed frontal attack in American military history,
George E. Pickett is among the most famous Confederate generals of
the Civil War. But even today he remains imperfectly understood, a
figure shrouded in Lost Cause mythology. In this carefully
researched biography, Lesley Gordon moves beyond earlier studies of
Pickett. By investigating how Pickett's wife LaSalle, who outlived
her husband by five decades, helped control his historical image,
Gordon illuminates Pickett's legend as well as his life.
A sweeping historiographical collection, Reinterpreting Southern
Histories updates and expands upon the iconic volumes Writing
Southern History and Interpreting Southern History, both published
by Louisiana State University Press. With nineteen original essays
cowritten by some of the most prominent historians working in
southern history today, this volume boldly explores the current
state, methods, innovations, and prospects of the richly diverse
and transforming field of southern history. Two scholars at
different stages of their careers coauthor each essay, working
collaboratively to provide broad knowledge of the most recent
historiography and an expansive vision for historiographical
contexts. This innovative approach provides an intellectual
connection with the earlier volumes while reflecting cutting-edge
scholarship in the field. Underlying each essay is the cultural
turn of the 1980s and 1990s, which introduced the use of language
and cultural symbols and the influence of gender studies,
postcolonial studies, and memory studies. The essays also rely less
on framing the South as a distinct region and more on
contextualizing it within national and global conversations.
Reinterpreting Southern Histories, like the two classic volumes
that preceded it, serves as both a comprehensive analysis of the
current historiography of the South and a reinterpretation of that
history, reaching new conclusions for enduring questions and
establishing the parameters of future debates.
Films possess virtually unlimited power for crafting broad
interpretations of American history. Nineteenth-century America has
proven especially conducive to Hollywood imaginations, producing
indelible images like the plight of Davy Crockett and the defenders
of the Alamo, Pickett's doomed charge at Gettysburg, the
proliferation and destruction of plantation slavery in the American
South, Custer's fateful decision to divide his forces at Little Big
Horn, and the onset of immigration and industrialization that saw
Old World lifestyles and customs dissolve amid rapidly changing
environments. Balancing historical nuance with passion for
cinematic narratives, Writing History with Lightning confronts how
movies about nineteenth-century America influence the ways in which
mass audiences remember, understand, and envision the nation's
past. In these twenty-six essays- divided by the editors into
sections on topics like frontiers, slavery, the Civil War, the Lost
Cause, and the West- notable historians engage with films and the
historical events they ostensibly depict. Instead of just
separating fact from fiction, the essays contemplate the extent to
which movies generate and promulgate collective memories of
American history. Along with new takes on familiar classics like
Young Mr. Lincoln and They Died with Their Boots On, the volume
covers several films released in recent years, including The
Revenant, 12 Years a Slave, The Birth of a Nation, Free State of
Jones, and The Hateful Eight. The authors address Hollywood epics
like The Alamo and Amistad, arguing that these movies flatten the
historical record to promote nationalist visions. The contributors
also examine overlooked films like Hester Street and Daughters of
the Dust, considering their portraits of marginalized communities
as transformative perspectives on American culture. By surveying
films about nineteenth-century America, Writing History with
Lightning analyzes how movies create popular understandings of
American history and why those interpretations change over time.
A Broken Regiment recounts the tragic history of one of the Civil
War's most ill-fated Union military units. organised in the late
summer of 1862, the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was
unprepared for battle a month later, when it entered the fight at
Antietam. The results were catastrophic: nearly a quarter of the
men were killed or wounded, and Connecticut's 16th panicked and
fled the field. In the years that followed, the regiment
participated in minor skirmishes before surrendering en masse in
North Carolina in 1864. Most of its members spent months in
southern prison camps, including the notorious Andersonville
stockade, where disease and starvation took the lives of over one
hundred members of the unit. The struggles of the 16th led
survivors to reflect on the true nature of their military
experience during and after the war, and questions of cowardice and
courage, patriotism and purpose, were often foremost in their
thoughts. Over time, competing stories emerged of who they were,
why they endured what they did, and how they should be remembered.
By the end of the century, their collective recollections reshaped
this troubling and traumatic past, and the ""unfortunate regiment""
emerged as ""The Brave Sixteenth,"" their individual memories and
accounts altered to fit the more heroic contours of the Union
victory. The product of over a decade of research, Lesley J.
Gordon's A Broken Regiment illuminates this unit's complex history
amid the interplay of various, and often competing, voices. The
result is a fascinating and heartrending story of one regiment's
wartime and postwar struggles.
In The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1970) and The
Confederate Nation (1979), Emory Thomas redefined the field of
Civil War history and reconceptualized the Confederacy as a unique
entity fighting a war for survival. Inside the Confederate Nation
honors his enormous contributions to the field with fresh
interpretations of all aspects of Confederate life -- nationalism
and identity, family and gender, battlefront and home front, race,
and postwar legacies and memories. Many of the volume's twenty
essays focus on individuals, households, communities, and
particular regions of the South, highlighting the sheer variety of
circumstances southerners faced over the course of the war. Other
chapters explore the public and private dilemmas faced by
diplomats, policy makers, journalists, and soldiers within the new
nation. All of the essays attempt to explain the place of
southerners within the Confederacy, how they came to see themselves
and others differently because of secession, and the disparities
between their expectations and reality.
The product of over a decade of research, Lesley J. Gordon's A
Broken Regiment recounts the tragic history of one of the Civil
War's most ill-fated Union military units. organised in the late
summer of 1862, the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was
unprepared for battle a month later, when it entered the fight at
Antietam. The results were catastrophic: nearly a quarter of the
men were killed or wounded, and Connecticut's 16th panicked and
fled the field. After years of fighting, the regiment surrendered
en masse in 1864. This unit's complex history amid the interplay of
various, and often competing, perspectives results in a fascinating
and heartrending story.
From Robert E. and Mary Lee to Ulysses S. and Julia Grant, Intimate
Strategies of the Civil War examines the marriages of twelve
prominent military commanders, highlighting the impact wives had on
their famous husbands' careers.
Carol K. Bleser and Lesley J. Gordon assemble an impressive array
of leading scholars to explore the marriages of six Confederate and
six Union commanders. Contributors reveal that, for many of these
men, the matrimonial bond was the most important relationship in
their lives, one that shaped (and was shaped by) their military
experience. In some cases, the commanders' spouses proved
relentless and skillful promoters of their husbands' careers.
Jessie Fremont drew on all of her connections as the daughter of
former Senator Thomas Hart Benton to aid her modestly talented
husband John. Others bolstered their military spouses in less
direct ways. For example, Ulysses S. Grant's relationship with
Julia (a Southerner and former slave owner herself) kept him
anchored in stormy times. Here, too, are tense and tempestuous
pairings, such William Tecumseh Sherman and his wife Ellen--his
foster sister before becoming his wife--and Jefferson Davis's
fascinatingly complex bond with Varina, further complicated by the
hostile rumors about the two in Richmond society. Throughout, these
historians paint remarkably intimate portraits of their subjects.
Readers will see these famed men in a way that they perhaps never
considered: not merely as famous leaders, but as lovers, husbands
and fathers.
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