A History of American Civil War Literature

This book is the first omnibus history of the literature of the American Civil War, the deadliest conflict in US history.

Coleman Hutchison (Edited by)

9781108461801, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 March 2018

381 pages, 6 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.58 kg

'… a timely and much overdue book that will prove invaluable to students and teachers alike. … A History of American Civil War Literature is an important volume, featuring many of the finest scholars working on literary representations of the war. It will doubtless become an essential guide to a conflict that, as many of the chapters attest, will continue to fascinate readers and writers alike.' Niall Munro, The Review of English Studies

This book is the first omnibus history of the literature of the American Civil War, the deadliest conflict in US history. A History of American Civil War Literature examines the way in which the war has been remembered and rewritten over time in prose, poems, and other narratives. This history incorporates new directions in Civil War historiography and cultural studies while giving equal attention to writings from both northern and southern states. It redresses the traditional neglect of southern literary cultures by moving between the North and the South, thus finding a balance between Union and Confederate texts. Written by leading scholars in the field, this book works to redefine the boundaries of American Civil War literature while posing a fundamental question: why does this 150-year-old conflict continue to capture the American imagination?

1. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the 'book that made this great war' Judie Newman
2. The American book trade and the Civil War Michael Winship
3. The transatlantic history of Civil War literature Christopher Hanlon
4. The 'American renaissance' after the American Civil War Randall Fuller
5. The realists' Civil War Ian Finseth
6. Dépôt culture: the Civil War and periodical fiction Kathleen Diffley
7. Imitation and resistance in Civil War poetry and song Faith Barrett
8. Children's literature James Marten
9. Writing lives: Civil War diaries Jane E. Schultz
10. Civil War memoir Sarah E. Gardner
11. Civil War narrative history T. Austin Graham
12. Walt Whitman Martin Buinicki
13. Emily Dickinson Shira Wolosky
14. Herman Melville Milette Shamir
15. Abraham Lincoln Shirley Samuels
16. Frederick Douglass Robert S. Levine
17. Mary Boykin Chesnut Julia A. Stern
18. Mark Twain Neil Schmitz
19. William Faulkner John T. Matthews
20. Robert Penn Warren John Burt
21. Natasha Trethewey Daniel Cross Turner.

Subject Areas: American Civil War [HBWJ], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]