The American Civil War was without doubt the defining event in the history of the United States. This up-to-date analyisis of a critical period goes beyond the origins, course and consequences of the Civil War to bring in other important themes such as racial conflict, gender relations, religion, the popular memory and state formation.
Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Maps. Note on the Text. Prologue. Independence Day, 1854. 1. A Robber and a Jailer: The Antebellum Republic 2. Bitter Fruit of an Unjust War: The Politics of Slavery Expansion, 1848-52 3. Political Crises of the 1850s 4. The Disunited States: Secession and Civil War 5. Our Deliverance is Nigh: The Quest for Southern Independence 6. Last Full Measure of Devotion: The Union in Wartime 7. War by Any Other Name: The Struggle over Reconstruction, 1865-76 8. Land of Gold: The Far West in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 9. Reform, Reaction and Reunion at the Dawn of the Guilded Age. Conclusion. The Proving Time: The United States in the Era of the Civil War. Select Bibliography. Index.
Focusing on the period 1848 to 1877, this social history describes the experiences of ordinary people on the battlefield and beyond, and reveals how the American Civil War paved the way for US power status and why the USA continues to rule the world.
Über den Autor
Robert Cook is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of a number of books on American history including Sweet Land of Liberty? The African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century (Longman)
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Maps. Note on the Text. Prologue. Independence Day, 1854. 1. A Robber and a Jailer: The Antebellum Republic 2. Bitter Fruit of an Unjust War: The Politics of Slavery Expansion, 1848-52 3. Political Crises of the 1850s 4. The Disunited States: Secession and Civil War 5. Our Deliverance is Nigh: The Quest for Southern Independence 6. Last Full Measure of Devotion: The Union in Wartime 7. War by Any Other Name: The Struggle over Reconstruction, 1865-76 8. Land of Gold: The Far West in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 9. Reform, Reaction and Reunion at the Dawn of the Guilded Age. Conclusion. The Proving Time: The United States in the Era of the Civil War. Select Bibliography. Index.
Klappentext
The turbulent middle decades of the nineteenth century constituted the critical period in American nation building. Civil War America shows that the eräs combination of civil war and economic growth laid the foundation for the United States¿ emergence as a Great Power in the early twentieth century.
Six hundred and twenty thousand men died in the Civil War - the United States¿ bloodiest single conflict which transformed a troubled slaveholding republic into the world¿s most advanced capitalist democracy. Civil War America is a compelling history of the origins of the Civil War as well as the events which brought about the destruction of the southern Confederacy, the triumph of the Union and the emancipation of four million black slaves. It also probes the impressive material development and westward expansion of the United States - grand national achievements which came at significant cost not only to many ordinary Americans but also to the indigenous inhabitants of the land, the Plains Indians.
Civil War America
is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the influence which the United States exerts in the modern world, and is the most sweeping and dramatic account of the American Civil War era on the market today.
Robert Cook is a Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sheffield.
