Cultures in Conflict--The American Civil War

By Steven E. Woodworth

Book Overview

The American Civil War was primarily a conflict of cultures, and slavery was the largest single cultural factor separating North and South. This collection of carefully selected memoirs, diaries, letters, and reminiscences of ordinary Northerners and Southerners who experienced the war as soldiers or civilians brings to life the conflict in culture, principles, attitudes, hopes, courage, and suffering of both sides. Woodworth, a Civil War historian, has selected a wide variety of moving first person accounts, each of which tells a story of a life as well as the attitudes of ordinary people and the real conditions of war and homefront. Woodworth presents the war in the words of those who lived it.

Contrasting selections will help the reader to see the war through the eyes of Northerners and Southerners as: soldiers prepare for war; women's lives change after the men go to war; soldiers on both sides experience the difficulties of camp life; sweethearts (the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln and her Confederate fianc ) exchange heartfelt letters; a husband's letters and his wife's diary recount their love, his death in battle, and her deep loss, countered by her faith; soldiers and civilians recount the carnage of the war's devastating battles; and people on both sides reflect on the outcome of the war and its consequences to their way of life. The accounts contrast the writers' attitudes toward Northern and Southern society, the principles for which those societies stood, and the religious significance of the war. These accounts and the narrative discussion of the difference in culture will help readers to understand the Civil War as a conflict of cultures. Telling the story of the war as personal history makes the experience of the Civil War come alive for readers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0313306516
• ISBN13: 9780313306518
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Greenwood
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference.

The American Civil War must be the most written-about episode in U.S. history, with as many as 70,000 titles thus far and more appearing every day. The sheer scope of the literature can be overwhelming. Where to start? The present work is an excellent jumping-off point, as it organizes the literature and research into eleven broad areas, then subdivides each into 47more specialized topics such as ordnance, social conditions, and economic factors, each of these then treated in a bibliographic essay by an expert on the subject. The result is a feast for beginner and old hand alike, opening the entire literature for browsing or focused research. Woodworth and colleagues have produced a work of enduring value, which deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the Civil War. (The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

A Tome for the AGES.

This is one of those books that at first glance you might say it's too expensive. But it is an investment. This is an in depth and scholarly look at multiple genres of Civil War books of all sorts, cogently described with insightful essays. It will save many readers many tedious hours of searching through OCLC and other bibliographies. (Simply for the price of a stay overnight in a downtown Marriot.) Seriously though this distllation of years of work by a lot of heavy weight scholars will save you many hours of tedious digging. If you cannot persuade your local university or public library to buy it then by all means do so for yourself. In addition the book includes a listing of the book trade members, both publishers and dealers, who specialize in the Civil War. Carter Rila