Union Heartland

The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-0-8093-3899-3
Verlag: Southern Illinois University Press

Buch, Englisch, 226 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 59 g

Historians have broadened the somewhat simplistic interpretation of the Civil War as a battle between the North and the South by revealing the “many Souths” that made up the Confederacy, but the “North” has remained largely undifferentiated as a geopolitical term. In this welcome collection, seven Civil War scholars offer a unique regional perspective on the Civil War by examining how a specific group of Northerners— Midwesterners, known as Westerners and Middle Westerners during the 1860s—experienced the war on the home front—experienced the war on the home front. From the exploitation of Confederate prisoners in Ohio to wartime college enrollment in Michigan, these essays reveal how Midwestern men, women, families, and communities became engaged in myriad war-related activities and support.

Agriculture figures prominently in the collection, with several contributors exploring the agricultural power of the region and the impact of the war on farming, farm families, and farm women. Contributors also consider student debates and reactions to questions of patriotism, the effect of the war on military families’ relationships, issues of women’s loyalty and deference to male authority, as well as the treatment of political dissent and dissenters. Bringing together an assortment of home front topics from a variety of fresh perspectives, this collection offers a view of the Civil War that is unabashedly Midwestern.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Über Autor(innen)

William C. Davis is the author or editor of more than fifty books on the Civil War. His work has received the Jefferson Davis Award, the Fletcher Pratt Award, the Jules Landry Award, and the Richard Nelson Current Award. He served as a professor of history at Virginia Tech and the executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies until his retirement in 2013.