Victorian America and the Civil War

Anne Rose examines the relationship between American Victorian culture and the Civil War, arguing that Romanticism was at the heart of Victorian culture.

Anne C. Rose (Author)

9780521478830, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 September 1994

324 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.443 kg

"The great advantage of Rose's method is the broad base of data it provides for her generalizations, many of which are fresh and insightful. Her descriptions of how this generation held apparently incompatible values in ambivalent tension are perfectly nuanced, and give us a more three-dimensional picture of familiar figures than we may have yet encountered." Michael S. Hamilton, Journal of American Culture

Victorian America and the Civil War examines the relationship between American Victorian culture and the Civil War. The author argues that at the heart of American Victorian culture was Romanticism, a secular quest to answer questions previously settled by traditional religion. In examining the biographies of seventy-five Americans who lived in the antebellum and Civil War eras, elements of disequilibrium, passion and intellectual excitement are explored in contrast to the traditional view of Victorian self-control and moral assurance. The Civil War is shown to be a central event in the cultural life of the American Victorians, which both was an environment for the resolution of their questions and a place where their values and aspirations could be reshaped. Anne Rose is the author of the award-winning book Transcendentalism as a Social Movement, 1830–1850.

List of illustrations
preface
Introduction
1. Religion
2. Work
3. Leisure
4. Family
5. Politics
6. Victorian America and the Civil War
Appendixes
Selected bibliography
Index.

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