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Steven E. Woodworth is professor of history at Texas Christian University, specializing in the Civil War and Reconstruction. He has written and edited several Civil War books, including Jefferson Davis and His Generals (1990), Davis and Lee at War (1995), and The Human Tradition in the Civil War and Reconstruction (2000).These essays offer important insights on the Civil War and Reconstruction through the experiences of a remarkable variety of individuals, from generals to housewives, whose lives were profoundly affected by the war and its aftermath. Making clear that history is, fundamentally, about people, this book will delight as well as inform the reader.
- James M. McPherson, Princeton University,
This satisfying collage of real people in the crucible of war reminds us that whatever its overarching political and economic imperatives, the greatest 'force' in history wears a human face. Private soldiers and generals, rabid rebels and Southern unionists, politicians and preachers, all appear in this treasury of personal triumphs and tragedies. Their experiences, packed with genuine drama, provide a thoroughly rewarding perspective on turbulent times.
- Daniel E. Sutherland, University of Arkansas, author of A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War,
A marvelous and worthwhile compendium. The Human Tradition in the Civil War and Reconstruction sheds light onto some previously dimly lit corners. I am particularly engrossed and much instructed by the essays on secondary and lower-echelon fighting men, women, potent politicians, and a religious figure of great note and import.
- Herman M. Hattaway, University of Missouri-Kansas City,
Illuminates the human dimension of the Civil War and sheds light into some previously dimly lit corners.
Educational Book Review
This engaging collection of essays illuminates the human dimension of the Civil War era. . . . This book is ideal for assignment in undergraduate courses.
- Joan E. Cashin, Ohio State University, author of Our Common Affairs, Texts from Women in Old South,
Dr. Calhoun received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is a past president of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. The nineteenth-century English author Thomas Carlyle once remarked that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." This approach to the study of the human past had existed for centuries before Carlyle wrote, and it continued to hold sway among many scholars well into the twentieth century. In more recent times, however, historians have recognized and examined the impact of large, seemingly impersonal forces in the evolution of human history-social and economic developments such as industrialization and urbanization as well as political movements such as nationalism, militarism, and socialism. Yet even as modern scholars seek to explain these wider currents, they have come more and more to realize that such phenomena represent the composite result of countless actions and decisions by untold numbers of individual actors. On another occasion, Carlyle said that "history is the essence of innumerable biographies." In this conception of the past, Carlyle came closer to modern notions that see the lives of all kinds of people, high and low, powerful and weak, known and unknown, as part of the mosaic of human history, each contributing in a large or small way to the unfolding of the human tradition. This latter idea forms the foundation for this series of books on the human tradition in America. Each volume is devoted to a particular period or topic in American history and each consists of minibiographies of persons whose lives shed light on that period or topic. Well-known figures are not altogether absent, but more often the chapters explore a variety of individuals who may be less conspicuous but whose stories, nonetheless, offer us a window on some aspect of the nation's past. By bringing the study of history down to the level of the individual, these sketches reveal not only the diversity of the American people and the complexity of their interaction but also some of the commonalities of sentiment and experience that Americans have shared in the evolution of their culture. Our hope is that these explorations of the lives of "real people" will give readers a deeper understanding of the human tradition in America.
Series Editor: Charles W. Calhoun