War fought and felt : the emotional motivations of Confederate soldiers / Joshua R. Shiver.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shiver, Joshua, Author.

Series:

Conflicting worlds

Conflicting Worlds : New Dimensions of the American Civil War

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Psychology.

Soldiers.

Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Attitudes.

Masculinity--Southern States.

Masculinity.

Soldiers--Confederate States of America.

Psychological aspects.

Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.

Confederate States of America.

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

United States.

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

United States--Confederate States of America.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

x, 219 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Emotional motivations of Confederate soldiers

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Joshua R. Shiver's War Fought and Felt advances our grasp of the links between masculinity, emotion, and relationships during the American Civil War. It is the first broadly researched, multidisciplinary, and statistically supported approach to understanding the pivotal role of emotions in the everyday lives of Confederate soldiers. Using a source base of more than 1,790 letters and diaries from two hundred Confederate soldiers from North Carolina and Alabama, it builds upon traditional sociocultural and ideological arguments for why Confederate soldiers fought. Drawing on history, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and neuroscience, it underscores the necessity of examining primal emotions when looking to understand soldiers' motivations. It argues that the heightened emotions felt by these soldiers drove them to suffer, fight, desert, and willingly die. Shiver examines the vital role of emotions within the context of soldiers' relationships with their parents, children, wives, sweethearts, and comrades. These relationships and the emotions they engendered defined Confederate soldiers' firsthand experiences of war and ultimately redefined the Confederate cause itself. A war that began steeped in ideology ended, for the soldiers, as one fought for the protection and future of one's loved ones. Shiver demonstrates that the emotionally overwhelming nature of the war forced a tectonic shift in American masculinity in which the prewar emphasis on stoic individualism gave way to an outpouring of emotional expression and mutual interdependence. As a result, Confederate soldiers pragmatically embraced emotional and relational norms that were previously considered taboo. By placing emotion alongside traditional ideological and sociocultural explanations for motivation, Shiver sheds light on a new area of research that promises to promote a deeper understanding of why the American Civil War was one of the bloodiest, most emotionally influential, and world-changing events of the last two centuries"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Masters of Manhood : The Shaping of the South's Masculine Ethos

Eros and Impetus : How Romance and Passion Encouraged Devotion to the Cause

Philia and Friendship : How Homosocial Bonding Sustained the Soldier's Morale

Storge and Steadfastness : How Familial Love Encouraged Continued Conflict

Ethnos and Authority : Race, Emotion, and the Bolstering of Male Motivations

Reunion and Reality : How the War Shaped Southern Men's Postwar Lives, Relationships, and Motivations.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Shiver, Joshua War fought and felt

ISBN:

9780807185056

0807185051

OCLC:

1514892824

Publisher Number:

90103852476