• "Crucible of the Civil War presents a fine collection
of essays by a talented group of young historians. Brimming with
insights about social, economic, and religious life in Virginia,
this book is a valuable addition to a growing body of work that
carries the study of the Civil War far beyond the battlefields."
óGeorge C. Rable, University of Alabama, author of Fredericksburg!
Fredericksburg!
|
Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to
Commemoration |
| |
| Edward L. Ayers, Gary W. Gallagher, and Andrew J. Torget,
eds. |
| 256 pages, 6 x 9 |
| 5 maps and graphs, 1 table |
| Cloth 978-0-8139-2552-3 • $35.00 |
| Available October 2006 |
 |
Serving both as home to the Confederacy's capital, Richmond, and
as the war's primary battlefield, Virginia held a unique place
in the American Civil War, while also witnessing the privations
and hardships that marked life in all corners of the Confederacy.
Yet despite an overwhelming literature on the battles that raged
across the state and the armies and military leaders involved,
few works have examined Virginia as a distinctive region during
the conflict. In Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession
to Commemoration, Edward L. Ayers, Gary W. Gallagher, and
Andrew J. Torget together with other scholars, offer an illuminating
portrait of the state's wartime economic, political, and social
institutions.
Weighing in on contentious issues within established scholarship
while also breaking ground in areas long neglected by scholars,
several of the essays examine such concerns as the war's effect
on slavery in the state, the wartime intersection of race and
religion, and the development of Confederate social networks.
Other contributions shed light on topics long disputed by historians,
such as Virginia's decision to secede from the Union, the development
of Confederate nationalism, and how Virginians chose to remember
the war after its close.
For anyone interested in Virginia during the Civil War, Crucible
of the Civil War offers new ways to approach the study of
the most important state in the Confederacy during the bloodiest
war in American history.
Edward L. Ayers is Hugh P. Kelly Professor
of History and Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences at the University of Virginia. Gary W. Gallagher
is John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil
War at the University of Virginia. Andrew J. Torget
is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University
of Virginia and Project Director of the Valley of the Shadow
Project at the Virginia Center for Digital History.
|
