CONFEDERATE WAR

Gallagher, Gary

ISBN 10: 067416055X / ISBN 13: 9780674160552

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1997

About this Item

Very Good in Very Good dust jacket; DJ is worn at edges. DJ price clipped; How Popular Will, Nationalism and the Military Strategy Could Not Stave Off Defeat. Signed by Author Gary Gallagher; B&W Illustrations; 218 pages; Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 79262

Bibliographic Details

• Title: CONFEDERATE WAR
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
• Publication Date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 067416055X
• ISBN 13: 9780674160552
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

If one is to believe contemporary historians, the South never had a chance. Many allege that the Confederacy lost the Civil War because of internal divisions or civilian disaffection, others point to flawed military strategy or ambivalence over slavery. This book argues that we should not ask why the Confederacy collapsed so soon, but rather how it lasted so long. The book re-examines the Confederate experience through the actions and words of the people who lived it, to show how the home front responded to the war, endured great hardships and assembled armies that fought with spirit and determination. This portrait of the period highlights a sense of Confederate patriotism and unity in the face of a determined adversary. Drawing on letters, diaries and newspapers of the day, the author challenges current historical thinking by showing that Southerners held not only an unflagging belief in their way of life, which sustained them to the bitter end, but also a widespread expectation of victory and a strong popular will closely attuned to military events. The book also claims, in contrast to the beliefs of many historians, that the South's offensive-defensive strategy came very close to triumph. To understand why the South lost, Gallagher says we need look no further than the war itself - a long struggle with enormous loss of life and property and the final realization by the Southerners that they had been beaten on the battlefield.

Review

The author makes a fine case for a new look at an old argument. Gallagher's book challenges the non-military historians to come out from behind the barricades once again. -- Russell Duncan "American Studies in Europe" Gallagher's effort will have serious students rejoicing in its persuasive argumentation for believing that battles and armies who indeed have some bearing on the outcomes of war. Everyone involved in the continuing debate over the factors behind the South's defeat must read Gallagher's book, and anyone wanting a helpful introduction to it should as well. -- Gaines M. Foster "Louisiana History" Gallagher's perceptive and engaging new book maintains that historians have got off track in recent years by attributing Confederate defeat to weakness on the home front rather than to performance on the battlefield. War-weariness, lack of will and ambivalence toward the cause of independence, they say, doomed the South...Gallagher addresses the right issues, asks probing questions and suggests intriguing alternatives. -- Daniel E. Sutherland "New York Times Book Review" "The Confederate War" is an impressive volume. The arguments which Gallagher employs to support his central thesis are well constructed and quite persuasive. Gallagher also relies on a wide array of Confederate voices from the past to substantiate his case and this makes for an interesting study. Moreover, Gallagher's extensive review of the literature is incisive and most informative. "The Confederate War" should provide good reading for all students of Confederate nationalism and will generate lively debate among historians of the American Civil War for years to come. -- Bruce Cauthen "Nation and Nationalism" "The Confederate War" is a significant and thought-provoking addition to the current body of Civil War literature. Gallagher has returned the focus of the war to the theater in which it was decided--military operations. In doing do, he demonstrates the enormous human, financial and material investment that white Southerners put into the struggle for independence. Solidly researched and sharply argued, "The Confederate War" cannot easily be dismissed by the 'internal causes' historians. Consequently, it is likely to rekindle debate among both academics and popularizers, which is all to the good, particularly in the current stifling climate of political. -- Richard F. Welch "America's Civil War" One of the most attractive and ennobling portrayals of the white Confederacy in recent memory. The lavish illustrations (numbering a full forty) and coffee-table "feel" assures that this beautifully produced and competitively priced volume will have a wide readership outside of the historical profession. Gallagher's own swift prose, clear argument, and richly documented account of white southerners at war can only bolster sales further...It is also safe to say that it will have a major impact on how historians will hereafter frame research on the slaveholding South's suicidal effort to establish its independence...In a growing corpus of work on the wartime South, Gallagher has explored the interactions of war and society and given new legitimacy to a field of military history that will always need to be a part of any general understanding of the 1860s. This work has achieved a substantial measure of authority. -- Robert E. Bonner "Reviews in American History" An important book..."The Confederate War" is certain to cause controversy. For Gallagher dares to suggest that, despite, "moral disapprobation" prevalent in many histories about the conflict over the past half-century, the stark fact remains that "a majority of white southerners steadfastly supported their nascent republic, and that Confederate arms more than once almost persuaded the North that the price of subduing the rebellious states would be too high..."Using published evidence from Confederate diarists, soldiers, statesmen, and newspapers--evidence which by omission or intent seldom seems to find its way into recent Civil War histories--Gallagher makes a compelling case for Confederate unity. The Confederacy did not fall to pieces after Gettysburg; a "mass of testimony" suggests that Southerners thought the war winnable until virtually the end...Thorough reassessments of the Confederacy and of the interpretations of it have long been overdue, and Gary W. Gallagher succeeds in his initial attempt to rebalance historical portrayals of the Civil War South. -- B. Anthony Gannon "Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"