Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures
By: Julie L. Holcomb
Hardcover | 26 July 2021
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344 Pages
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Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures begins with the causes of the war, examining objects that tell the story of slavery and its expansion in the nineteenth century. Cultural treasures representing the war years explore the battlefield and the homefront and the men and women caught up in the war as well the ways in which the scale of the war forced technological innovations.
Given the centrality of slavery, race, and emancipation in the story of the Civil War, one section presents objects that detail how free and enslaved blacks transformed the war effort and were in turn transformed by the war. In the final section, the historic treasures trace the ongoing impact of the war, including the dramatic increase in the removal of Confederate monuments in the summer of 2020.
Each object's story is detailed with color photos that draw readers into the story of the American Civil War. Many of these objects appear here in print for the first time.
About the Author
Julie Holcomb is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in Museum Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Holcomb received her Bachelor of Arts in History and Creative Writing from Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon; her Master of Library and Information Science, with a specialization in Archives and Records Management from the University of Texas at Austin (; and her PhD in Transatlantic History from the University of Texas at Arlington.
She is the author of Moral Commerce: Quakers and The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy and the editor of Southern Sons, Northern Soldiers: The Civil War Letters of the Remley Brothers, 22nd Iowa Infantry . In addition to her books, Holcomb has published widely in a variety of academic and popular venues.
Industry Reviews
From literature to landscapes, Professor Holcomb's inspired selection of fifty historical objects immediately transports readers to the Civil War era. Her expertly researched snapshots provide an absorbing overview of the conflict, illuminating important social, political, and military issues. Holcomb's crisp narration will draw in a general readership, while her academic sensibility makes the book suitable for a variety of classroom applications.
--Theresa Kaminski, author of Queen of the West: The Life and Times of Dale EvansAt almost no time in our post-1865 history has it been so clear that the Civil War, though settled, has never really been over. This compendium features artifacts from many small museums, examining a wide variety of objects from the origins of the war right up to recent challenges to Confederate monuments. The final artifact included is a mural of George Floyd on a wall in Portland, Oregon. The objects are not presented in chronological order, but a chronological time line of objects and a Civil War time line immediately follow the preface. Artifacts are organized by category: causes, politics, battlefield, soldiers, home front, symbols, emancipation, and legacy. Each entry begins with a clear color photograph or reproduction with information on the collection in which the artifact is found and the accession number. An informed and readable essay follows, giving context (like political and social movements), concepts represented, and relevant historical and biographical detail. The volume ends with chapter notes, including relevant publications and websites, and a lengthy selected bibliography. Certainly timely, this title is worthy of consideration for public and university collections.
-- "Booklist"In Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures, Julie Holcomb relates the inspiring and painful history of the Civil War era through photographs, letters, objects, and art. Her compelling work underscores how material culture can help the public understand a complex past that continues to echo in our society today.
--Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D., professor of history, co-director, The Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, University of Southern Mississippi, director, Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi ProjectIn Exploring the Civil War Through 50 Historic Treasures, Julie Holcomb takes a broad view of both the Civil War and what constitutes an object. The result is a rich and occasionally surprising discussion of the war that looks back to its roots and forward to its legacy.
--Pamela D. Toler, author of Heroines of Mercy Street: Real Nurses of the Civil War and Women Warriors: An Unexpected HistoryList of Tables
Preface
Object Timeline
Civil War Timeline
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Part One: Causes
- For Sale - "A Day I'll Never Forgit"
- Good Credit, Good Prices, & Good Profits: The Slave Labor Economy
- Buy for the Sake of the Slave!: Quakers, Antislavery, and the Boycott of Slave Labor
- Strike a Blow for Freedom: Black Activism and the Abolitionist Movement
- "I will be harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice": The Antebellum Antislavery Movement
- Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Sumner: Challenges to the Expansion of Slavery in the West
- "A Man Kidnapped!": Northern Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
- "Honest Old Abe is Bound to Win": The Election of 1860
- The Union is Dissolved!: The Secession Crisis
- "Strike for Your Altars and Your Fires!": The Fight for the Border States
- Securing Alliances: The Confederate Government and the Five Tribes
- John Bull Makes a Choice: Cotton and International Politics
- A Sacred Emblem of the Battle of Glorieta Pass
- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site: The Indian Wars in the Civil War Era
- A Terrible Slaughter: The Battle of Gettysburg
- "We Will Prove Ourselves Men": The United States Colored Troops
- Caring for the Wounded: Nurses in the Civil War
- "His names was Bidwell Pedley": Caring for the Dead during the Civil War
- "Let them surrender and go home": Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House
- Lee's Right Army: Stonewall Jackson
- "The Beast": Benjamin Butler and the Occupation of New Orleans
- The "Father of Black Nationalism": Martin Delany
- "Those d-d black hatted fellows": The Iron Brigade of the West
- Lee's Shock Troops: Hood's Texas Brigade
- "What is to be done with the prisoners?": Union and Confederate Prisons
- Days of Infamy and Disgrace: The New York City Draft Riots
- The Evolution of the Union Cavalry
- "The Last Thought of a Dying Father": The Northern Home Front
- "Bread or Blood!": The Southern Home Front during the Civil War
- "Pounding on the Rock": African American Families in the Civil War North
- "I Wanted to Be My Own General": Guerilla Warfare and the Homefront
- On Her Own: The Texas Home Front during the Civil War
- "The Speechless Agony of the Fettered Slave": The Symbolism of the Antislavery Movement
- "The Little Woman Who Made the Great War": Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin
- "If you want my flag, you'll have to take it over my dead body": National and Regimental Flags during the Civil War
- Setting the Beat for War: Popular Music in the North and the South
- The Great Locomotive Chaise: Railroads and Military Strategy
- A Scientific Foundation for Medical Care: The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion
- "A curious marine monster": Ironclads and Riverine Warfare
- The Silk Dress Balloon: Aeronautics in the Civil War
- Freedom's Fort: The Beginnings of Emancipation
- An Abolition War: The Emancipation Proclamation
- Troubled Refuge: Contraband Camps
- A New Birth of Freedom: Thirteenth Amendment
- Help Me Find My People: Reconstructing Black Families
- "I Won't Be Reconstructed": Southerners and Confederate Defeat
- Memorializing the Dead: Race, Heritage, and the Lost Cause
- Reconciliation and Reunion: Blue and Gray Reunions in the Post-Civil War Era
- The Black Confederate Story: Civil War History and Memory in the Age of the Internet
- Stone Mountain: Confederate Monuments in the Twenty-First Century
Index
Bibliography
About the Author
ISBN: 9781538118559
ISBN-10: 1538118556
Series: AASLH Exploring America's Historic Treasures
Published: 26th July 2021
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number of Pages: 344
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 24.1 x 16.0 x 2.2
Weight (kg): 0.85
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