| Abstract |
"American Discord" is a wide-ranging collection of essays by established and emerging scholars that examine many of the most critical aspects of the Civil War era, including rhetoric and nationalism, politics and violence, military and war; and gender, race, and religion. The collection begins with a look at American political culture in the 1860s with essays that reveal that most Americans entered the decade uninterested in political compromise. Focused on the moral superiority of their politics, both Democrats and Republicans created an atmosphere in which they viewed their political opponents as villains working on behalf of the devil. In addition to exploring this rancorous political culture, these contributors reveal how northerners and southerners wove white supremacy into the political fabric of their region. They also show that both Republicans and Democrats considered their opposition's views on slavery and emancipation to be signs of moral depravity. Shifting to the war, the essayists continue with the themes of internal conflict, lack of compromise, and commitment to white supremacy. Here the contributors conceive of battle as a broad concept, considering its environmental effects and how the war shaped the lives of the soldiers and civilians caught in its midst. Moreover, they reveal the pervasiveness of internal conflict as Confederates attempted to determine how to secede and as Union commanders disagreed over how to use African American troops in battle, and as civilian women-whether southern white women or contraband African American women-attempted to redefine and enlarge the boundaries of domestic ideology and citizenship. While the war may have blurred boundaries between battle and home or civilian and soldier, the chaos of the war ultimately prompted Americans to grasp for familiar gender and racial hierarchies. Examinations of the chaos and internal division that continued after the war suggest that the political culture of Reconstruction was every bit as rancorous as the early 1860s. Former Confederates decried the barbarity of their Yankee conquerors, comparing their own plight to that of French conservatives overrun by Jacobins. Republicans portrayed Democrats as backward rubes in need of civilizing. Contributors highlight Americans' continued reliance on hyperbolic rhetoric and demonstrate that their commitment to white supremacy was in flux by the end of the war. In fact, the acceptance of emancipation was central to Republicans' conception of what it meant to be civilized, educated, and reconstructed. They also show that the backlash against black equality was often fervent and violent. Indeed, former Confederates rejected outright - in the press, in their churches, and through extralegal violence - any Republican attempts to solidify freedom through political rights, integration, and land redistribution. The conflicts created by the war were not merely sectional but internal. As Reconstruction ended, politicians sought to mold the meaning of the war to suit their ambitions. Union generals penned memoirs - at times combative ones - to solidify their place in history. Confederate politicians connected themselves to the extralegal violence of Reconstruction in order to establish their white supremacist credentials with southern white voters. Overall, "American Discord" embraces a multifaceted view of the Civil War and its aftermath, attempting to capture the myriad complicated experiences of the human beings who experienced the conflict. The many interpersonal and interconnected conflicts that occurred within the Union and the Confederacy shaped people's individual and collective responses to the war. These essays also reveal that ordinary human beings and their experiences matter and that the dynamics among family, friends, and enemies have far-reaching consequences as well"-- Provided by publisher. |
