The American Civil War / Adam I.P. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Adam I. P.

Series:

American history in depth

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

United States.

History.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Causes.

United States--Politics and government--1861-1865.

Politics and government.

Slavery--United States--History.

Slavery.

Physical Description:

xxii, 275 pages : maps ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Summary:

The American Civil War was by far the bloodiest conflict in American history. Arising out of a political crisis over the expansion of slavery, the war set the stage for the emergence of the modern American nation-state. This new interpretation of one of the most mythologized events in modern history combines narrative with analysis and an up-to-date assessment of the state of Civil War scholarship.

The American Civil War: emphasizes the importance of northern public opinion in shaping the meaning and outcome of the crisis, argues that the war exposed deep social and political divisions within, as well as between, North and South, explores the experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, and the political and cultural context in which they lived, sets this distinctively American crisis over slavery and nationhood in the wider context of the nineteenth-century world. Concise and authoritative, this is an indispensable introduction to a critical period in modern American history.

Contents:

1 Slavery and the American Republic 1

Nationalism, Democracy and Republicanism 2

The Slavery Issue 8

The Power of Slaveowners 17

The Crisis over the Extension of Slavery 24

Compromise and its Consequences 34

2 Political Crisis and the Resort to War 39

The Kansas Nebraska Act 39

Republicanism and the Slave Power 45

The Rise of the Secessionists 50

Lincoln's Election and the Secession of the Deep South 54

The North's War for the Union 60

The Sumter Crisis 66

First Bull Run 69

3 The Failure of Limited War, 1861-1862 73

The Military Balance Sheet, 1861 73

Strategy and Tactics 78

The Union Army Advances: December 1861-May 1862 84

Confederate Victories in the East: May to September 1862 87

Emancipation 91

4 Emancipation and Hard War, 1862-1864 103

Confederate High Tide: December 1862-July 1863 103

Confederate Reversals: Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga 109

"Hard War" in 1864 115

Grant Takes Command 120

5 Citizen Soldiers 130

Life in Civil War Armies 137

Attitudes and Motivations 140

6 The Ordeal of the Confederate Republic 151

Birth of a Nation-State 152

Confederate Nationalism and the Southern People 159

The Strains of War and the Limits of Loyalty 164

Slavery and the Confederate Cause 172

7 The Last Best Hope of Earth: The War for the Union 178

Organizing Northern Society for War 178

Partisanship, Democracy and the Limits of Dissent 186

Reconstruction and Union Politics 196

The 1864 Election 201

8 The Magic Word, "Freedom" 205

The Road to Appomattox 205

Why the South Lost the War 209

The Nation "Redeemed" 220

Unfinished Business 224.

ISBN:

9780333790533

0333790537

9780333790540

0333790545

OCLC:

76925135

Online:

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