In this path-breaking work on the American Civil War, Joan E. Cashin explores the struggle between armies and civilians over the human and material resources necessary to wage war. This war 'stuff' included the skills of white Southern civilians, as well as such material resources as food, timber, and housing. At first, civilians were willing to help Confederate or Union forces, but the war took such a toll that all civilians, regardless of politics, began focusing on their own survival. Both armies took whatever they needed from human beings and the material world, which eventually destroyed the region's ability to wage war. In this fierce contest between civilians and armies, the civilian population lost. Cashin draws on a wide range of documents, as well as the perspectives of environmental history and material culture studies. This book provides an entirely new perspective on the war era.

Author: Joan E. Cashin
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/30/2018
Series: Cambridge Studies on the American South
Pages: 270
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781108413183


Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2019

About the Author
Cashin, Joan E.: - Joan E. Cashin is a Professor of History at Ohio State University. An award-winning scholar of nineteenth-century American history, she is the author or editor of five books, including First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War (2009).