The Civil War thrust Americans onto unfamiliar terrain, as two competing societies mobilized for four years of bloody conflict. Concerned Northerners turned to the print media for guidance on how to be good citizens in a war that hit close to home but was fought hundreds of miles away. They read vels, short stories, poems, songs, editorials, and newspaper stories. They laughed at cartoons and satirical essays. Their spirits were stirred in response to recruiting broadsides and patriotic envelopes. This massive cultural outpouring offered a path for ordinary Americans casting around for direction. Examining the breadth of Northern popular culture, J. Matthew Gallman offers a dramatic reconsideration of how the Union's civilians understood the meaning of duty and citizenship in wartime. Although a huge percentage of military-aged men served in the Union army, a larger group chose to stay home, even while they supported the war. This pathbreaking study investigates how men and women, both white and black, understood their roles in the People's Conflict. Wartime culture created humorous and angry stereotypes ridiculing the nation's cowards, crooks, and fools, while wrestling with the challenges faced by ordinary Americans. Gallman shows how thousands of authors, artists, and readers together created a new set of rules for navigating life in a nation at war.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
ISBN-10
1469620995
ISBN-13
9781469620992
eBay Product ID (ePID)
214294689
Product Key Features
Author
J. Matthew Gallman
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Military History
Dimensions
Weight
635g
Height
235mm
Width
156mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Chapel Hill
Spine
27mm
Series Title
Civil War America
Content Note
73 Halftones
Author Biography
J. Matthew Gallman is a professor of history at the University of Florida, USA and the author of Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855.