Search results

The Civil War tends to be remembered as a vast sequence of battles, with a turning point at Gettysburg and a culmination at Appomattox. But in the guerrilla theater, the conflict was a vast sequence of home invasions, local traumas, and social degeneration that did not necessarily end in 1865. This book chronicles the history of "guerrilla memory," the collision of the Civil War memory "industry" with the somber realities of irregular warfare in the borderlands of Missouri and Kansas. In the f...

The Gettysburg Campaign and its culminating battle have generatedmore than their share of analysis and published works. In My Gettysburg, Civil War scholar and twenty-six-year Gettysburg resident Mark Snell goes beyond the campaign itself to explore the "culture" of the battlefield. In this fascinating collection, Snell provides an intriguing interpretation of some neglected military aspects of the battle, such as a revisionist study of Judson Kilpatrick's decision to launch ""Farnsworth's Char...

Behind the Scenes is the life story of Elizabeth Keckley, a shrewd entrepreneur who, while enslaved, raised enough money to purchase freedom for herself and her son. Keckley moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a seamstress and dressmaker for the wives of influential politicians. She eventually became a close confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. Several years after President Lincoln's assassination, when Mrs. Lincoln's financial situation had worsened, Keckley helped organize an auction of...

Americans take for granted that government does not have the right to permanently seize private property without just compensation. Yet for much of American history, such a view constituted the weaker side of an ongoing argument about government sovereignty and individual rights. What brought about this drastic shift in legal and political thought? Daniel W. Hamilton locates that change in the crucible of the Civil War. In the early days of the war, Congress passed the First and Second Confisc...

If there's one conflict that was remarkable from a lot of points of view, it was the American Civil War, better known in France as the War of Secession. In this war the armies of the South opposed those of the North - the Union - of the almost hundred-years old republic of the United States of (North) America; it remains in the annals as the last classic war - in certain aspects the heir to the Napoleonic wars - and the first real modern war of the 20th Century in which "state of the art" techno...

This book describes how the telegraph, invented in the 1830's, became indispensable to the point that by 1851 there were more than 50 companies providing telegraphic service in the United States alone. The invention then became a principle factor in warfare beginning with the American Civil War, was a major part of the creation of the first large corporation in America, Western Union, and proved capable of fostering long distance communication with the laying of the Atlantic Cable. Even though i...

Approaches to American Cultural Studies provides an accessible yet comprehensive overview of the diverse range of subjects encompassed within American Studies, familiarising students with the history and shape of American Studies as an academic subject as well as its key theories, methods, and concepts. Written and edited by an international team of authors based primarily in Europe, the book is divided into four thematically-organised sections. The first part delineates the evolution of Americ...

The Battle of Antietam took place on September 17, 1862, and still standsas the bloodiest single day in American military history. Additionally, inits aftermath, President Abraham Lincoln issued his famous EmancipationProclamation. In this engaging, easy-to-use guide, Carol Reardon and TomVossler allow visitors to understand this crucial Civil War battle in finedetail. Abundantly illustrated with maps and historical and modern photographs,A Field Guide to Antietam explores twenty-one sites on an...