Christopher McIlwain’s Civil War Alabama is a landmark book that sheds invigorating new light on the causes; the course; and the outcomes in Alabama of the nation’s greatest drama and trauma. Based on twenty years of exhaustive research that draws on a vast trove of primary sources such as letters; newspapers; and personal journals; Civil War Alabama presents compelling new explanations for how Alabama’s white citizens came to take up arms against the federal government. A fledgling state at only forty years old; Alabama approached the 1860s with expanding populations of both whites and black slaves. They were locked together in a powerful yet fragile economic engine that produced and concentrated titanic wealth in the hands of a white elite. Perceiving themselves trapped between a mass of disenfranchised black slaves and the industrializing and increasingly abolitionist North; white Alabamians were led into secession and war by a charismatic cohort who claimed the imprimatur of biblical scripture; romanticized traditions of chivalry; and the military mantle of the American Revolution. And yet; Alabama’s white citizens were not a monolith of one mind. McIlwain dispels the received wisdom of a white citizenry united behind a cadre of patriarchs and patriots. Providing a fresh and insightful synthesis of military events; economic factors such as inflation and shortages; politics and elections; the pivotal role of the legal profession; and the influence of the press; McIlwain’s Civil War Alabama illuminates the fissiparous state of white; antebellum Alabamians divided by class; geography; financial interests; and political loyalties. Vital and compelling; Civil War Alabama will take its place among the definitive books about Alabama’s doomed Confederate experiment and legacy. Although he rigorously dismantles idealized myths about the South’s “Lost Cause;†McIlwain restores for contemporary readers the fervent struggles between Alabamians over their response to the epic crisis of their times.
#82649 in Books 2003-05-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.51 x .63 x 5.52l; .70 #File Name: 0817014500160 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I would recommend this book to all churches that can benefit from ...By Gregory WoodsA interesting review of how to structure different class within the African American Church. I would recommend this book to all churches that can benefit from the research that this book has provided.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Alexis J AnthonyExcellent book0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy CustomerJust what I needed for class
