The Cambridge History of the American Civil War: Volume 3, Affairs of the People

This volume analyzes the cultural and intellectual experiences of Americans during and after the Civil War.

Aaron Sheehan-Dean (Edited by)

9781107154544, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 October 2019

532 pages, 4 b/w illus. 8 colour illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 1 kg

This volume analyzes the cultural and intellectual impact of the war, considering how it reshaped Americans' spiritual, cultural, and intellectual habits. The Civil War engendered an existential crisis more profound even than the changes of the previous decades. Its duration, scale, and intensity drove Americans to question how they understood themselves as people. The chapters in the third volume distinguish the varied impacts of the conflict in different places on people's sense of themselves. Focusing on particular groups within the war, including soldiers, families, refugees, enslaved people, and black soldiers, the chapters cover a broad range of ways that participants made sense of the conflict as well as how the war changed their attitudes about gender, religion, ethnicity, and race. The volume concludes with a series of essays evaluating the ways Americans have memorialized and remembered the Civil War in art, literature, film, and public life.

Part I. Values: 1. Wartime masculinities James J. Broomall
2. Northern women and the Civil War Nina Silber
3. Southern women and the Civil War Sarah E. Gardner
4. Religion in the Civil War era Timothy L. Wesley
5. Economic and social values in the Civil War Brian P. Luskey
Part II. Social Experience: 6. Families in the Civil War James Marten
7. Refugees and movement in the Civil War David Silkenat
8. Citizen soldiers Susannah J. Ural
9. Immigrant America and the Civil War David T. Gleeson
10. Emancipation and war Yael A. Sternhell
11. The black military experience Joseph P. Reidy
12. Motives and morale Paul A. Cimbala
13. Urban and rural America in the Civil War Frank Towers
Part III. Outcomes: 14. Making peace Elizabeth R. Varon
15. Reconstruction during the Civil War Mark Wahlgren Summers
16. Veterans and the postwar world Barbara A. Gannon
17. The Civil War and the American state Gregory P. Downs
18. The Civil War and American law Christian G. Samito
19. The Civil War in visual art David C. Ward
20. The Civil War in American thought Peter S. Carmichael
21. The Civil War in literary memory John Casey
22. The Civil War in film Craig A. Warren
23. The Civil War in public memory Caroline E. Janney.

Subject Areas: American Civil War [HBWJ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]