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The Northern Home Front during the Civil War by Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller (review)
Civil War History Pub Date : 2021-05-07
Judith Giesberg

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Reviewed by:

  • The Northern Home Front during the Civil War by Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller
  • Judith Giesberg
The Northern Home Front during the Civil War. Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2017. ISBN 978-0-313-35290-4. 234 pp. cloth, $48.00.

Paul Cimbala and Randall Miller are editors extraordinaire, having edited and coedited, by my estimate, twenty-four volumes between them—six of them together. [End Page 150] And, they also coauthor books, like this one, the latest in John David Smith's "Reflections on the Civil War Era" series. This volume makes clear that Cimbala and Miller have also read just about everything that has been published about the North in the Civil War for the past thirty years—including dozens of published letter collections. For proof, readers can turn to the fifteen-page bibliographic essay that accompanies the narrative. Northern Home Front mostly avoids the trap of trying to decide if the war did or did not change the North by instead highlighting how "Northern people engaged and understood the war" (xiii). Doing so allows Cimbala and Miller to conclude that in 1865 "most Northerners were happy to get on with their lives" (160). In this short volume, the authors provide ample evidence of how much the lives Northerners were eager to get on with were changed as well as the nation they inhabited. A synthesis of recent scholarship on the war, Northern Home Front also features original research that highlights how everyday Americans in Northern communities sought to make sense of a war that came into their homes and communities and stayed there too long.

With its accessible prose and short length, this volume would work well in an undergraduate course on the Civil War, as an introduction to such issues as Northern labor relations, freedom of the press, war financing, draft evasion, dissent, and industrial development. Each topic is briefly and efficiently discussed. Among its many virtues, the book is full of useful statistics. Here are two examples that will make their way into my lectures: in one year (late 1863-early 1864), the US Army arrested 2,810 deserters and 3,743 draft evaders in eastern Pennsylvania (142); and 85,000 of the 133,000 men who were drafted in the first two federal drafts paid the commutation fee to avoid serving (138). Graduate student mentors will find the book useful in guiding their mentees to underexplored research topics, such as the aftershocks that rippled through Northern communities as a result of rapid industrial demobilization that left behind shuttered factories and, in some places, wrecked environments—and, of course, lingering resentment for the administration and the war's outcomes. I particularly appreciated the chapter titled "Incomplete Families," which, in addition to sketching out for readers the stakes for Northern families of the absence of male breadwinners, includes original analyses of the experience of stress and depression among women with absentee husbands and the best summary I have seen of various efforts to send soldier wages home to the families who needed the money. The book treats emancipation and the limitations of Northern racism fairly.

And, throughout Northern Home Front the authors weave in welcome surprises. Some of the usual suspects appear, such as Chicago nurse memoirist Mary Livermore and Philadelphia diarist and Democrat Sidney Fisher but other more well-known figures are left out to make room for new voices. Readers will not miss [End Page 151] cranky and bigoted New York diarist George Templeton Strong, and although Northern governors and other politicos make appearances, the book takes readers beyond the statehouses and into the homes, churches, streets, and schoolhouses of the wartime North. There readers will be introduced to students at the University of Vermont writing home about how talk of war was making it impossible to study; New York journalist, George Lawrence Jr., suggesting that the secession crisis could be resolved by arming a band of African American irregular fighters; German and Luxembourgian draft resisters in Wisconsin; and residents of Belfast, Maine, who established a coast guard, mostly to protect citizens from rowdy and disruptive soldiers who passed through the town on their...



中文翻译:

内战期间的北方家庭阵线,保罗·辛巴拉(Paul A. Cimbala)和兰德尔·M·米勒(Randall M. Miller)(评论)

代替摘要,这里是内容的简要摘录:

审核人:

  • 内战期间的北部家园前线,保罗·辛巴拉(Paul A. Cimbala)和兰德尔·米勒(Randall M. Miller)
  • 朱迪思·吉斯伯格(Judith Giesberg)
内战时期的北方家园战线。Paul A. Cimbala和Randall M. Miller。加利福尼亚州圣塔芭芭拉:2017年Praeger。ISBN978-0-313-35290-4。234 pp。布料,$ 48.00。

保罗·辛巴拉(Paul Cimbala)和兰德尔·米勒(Randall Miller)是非凡的编辑,据我估计,他们之间编辑并共同编辑了24卷,其中有6卷。[完第150页]而且,他们还合着了约翰·戴维·史密斯(John David Smith)的《南北战争时代的思考》系列中的最新著作。这本书清楚地表明,辛巴拉和米勒还读了过去30年内战中有关北方的一切出版物,包括数十本已出版的信件集。为了证明这一点,读者可以参考叙述后的长达十五页的书目文章。北部家庭阵线大多数情况下,通过强调“北方人民如何参与和理解战争”来避免试图确定战争是否改变了北方的陷阱(十三)。这样做可以使辛巴拉和米勒得出结论,在1865年“大多数北方人都很乐意继续自己的生活”(160)。在这短短的书中,作者提供了足够的证据来证明北方人渴望与之相处的生活以及他们所居住的国家发生了多少变化。《北方家园战线》是对最近关于战争的研究成果的综合,还具有原创性研究,该研究着重指出了北方社区的美国人每天如何设法理解进入他们的家园和社区并在那里呆了太久的战争。

由于其散文易懂,篇幅短,该卷在有关内战的本科课程中非常有效,可以作为对北方劳资关系,新闻自由,战争经费,逃兵,异议和工业发展等问题的介绍。每个主题都进行了简要而有效的讨论。这本书有许多优点,其中充满了有用的统计数据。以下是两个将要进入我的演讲的例子:一年(1863年末-1864年初),美国陆军在宾夕法尼亚州东部逮捕了2,810名逃兵和3,743名逃兵(142);在前两次联邦选秀中起草的133,000名男性中,有85,000名为避免服役而支付了通勤费(138)。研究生导师会发现这本书对指导他们的导师解决未充分研究的课题很有用,例如,由于快速的工业复员而在北部社区蔓延的余震,使工厂倒闭,在某些地方,环境遭受破坏,当然,对政府和战争的结果也充满了不满。我特别赞赏标题为“不完整的家庭”的一章,该章除了为读者勾勒出缺乏男性养家糊口的北方家庭的赌注外,还包括对缺席的丈夫和最优秀的妇女中的压力和沮丧经历的原始分析。总结我已经看到了将士兵的工资寄回需要钱的家庭的各种努力。这本书公平地对待了解放和北方种族主义的局限性。

而且,在整个《北方家庭阵线》中,作者编织着令人惊讶的惊喜。一些通常的嫌疑人出现了,例如芝加哥护士回忆录作家玛丽·利弗莫尔(Mary Livermore)和费城的日记作家和民主党人西德尼·费舍尔(Sidney Fisher),但其他一些更知名的人物被排除在外,以腾出空间来表达新的声音。读者将不会错过[End Page 151]纽约的对话家乔治·邓普顿·斯特朗(George Templeton Strong)发狂而顽固,尽管出现了北方州长和其他政治人物的身影,但该书还是将读者带到了战时北部的州议会大厦,房屋,教堂,街道和校舍之外。那里的读者将被介绍给佛蒙特大学的学生,他们在家中写作,他们谈论战争是如何使人们无法学习的。纽约新闻记者乔治·劳伦斯(George Lawrence Jr.)表示,可以通过武装一支非裔美国非正规战斗人员武装来解决分裂危机。威斯康星州的德国和卢森堡防draft草;和缅因州贝尔法斯特的居民,他们建立了海岸警卫队,主要是为了保护公民免遭在他们的城镇中经过该镇的粗暴和破坏性士兵的侵害。

更新日期:2021-05-07
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