From Library Journal
Historians have often looked backward from the surrender at Appomattox
to explain the failure of the Confederacy. They have concluded that the
Confederacy's defeat was due mainly to decay from within resulting from
internal strife among different factions of Southern society. Gallagher
(American history, Pennsylvania State Univ.; editor of Lee the Soldier,
LJ 4/15/96) disputes that interpretation. While he concedes that there
were disagreements, he points to numerous letters and diaries that
support his contention that Confederate society rallied around the Stars
and Bars until Appomattox. Popular will gave rise to national sentiment
whose morale depended on the battlefield victories won by Lee's army.
Only Lee's surrender convinced many that the Confederate cause was
indeed lost. The author makes a fine case for a new look at an old
argument. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with
Civil War collections.?Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist.
P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A revisionist examination of the Confederate experience, as much
concerned with historians and their methods as with history itself.
``Any historian who argues that the Confederate people demonstrated
robust devotion to their slave-based republic, possessed feelings of
national community, and sacrificed more than any other segment of white
society in US history,'' frets Gallagher (American History/Penn. State
Univ.), ``runs the risk of being labeled a neo-Confederate.'' He's
right to worry. Making precisely that argument, his history of
Confederate military and civilian experience veers dangerously close to
hagiography of an entire culture. Challenging the current historical
consensus that lack of will, absence of national unity, and flawed
military strategy doomed the Confederacy, Gallagher presents
contemporary letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts that rhapsodize
about the true grit of rebel soldiers and civilians. To his credit, he
resists the urge to backtrack from Appomattox when explaining military
failure (as he accuses other historians of doing) and instead puts the
Confederate war effort in a larger historical framework--namely the
successful rebellion of the American Revolution. He poses a number of
intriguing questions for fellow historians, suggesting most notably
that scholars ask not why an uprising viewed as ``a rich man's war but a
poor man's fight'' failed, but why so many non-slaveholders fought for
so long. But his parade of testimonials to the nobility of the Lost
Cause, unchallenged by critical questioning, sticks in the craw.
Soldiers' letters, reenlistment figures, and editorials--which all
suggest high morale when taken at face value by Gallagher--could easily
be viewed as propaganda. At least their bombastic language enlivens an
otherwise stiffly formal academic text. A work of more interest to
historians than general readers, and more important for the questions
it raises than any it answers. (40 photos, not seen) (History Book Club
selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.