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Essay descirbing the civil war
Civil war and the impact on society
Essay descirbing the civil war
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The book, “Confederates in the Attic,” has several themes, but a few major ones can easily be pointed out. First, it would be how the civil war seems to have an impact on every single person in the south in some way. Which ultimately shows how people like to feel as if they’re unique in some way, or special, hence why many southerners like to point out their famous ancestors in the Civil War. The other running theme in the book is the need to escape the fast pace reality of the modern world. The people who like to reenact, known as “reenactors”, and their obsession with being “hardcore” is the main example of this strong need for escape, as the simple life of the Civil War era can provide such escape. It’s like a hobby for them but I doubt they would refer to it as a hobby but more like a way of life away from reality. The …show more content…
His family connection to the Civil War gave him a sense of pride. Modern Americans should remember and memorialize the Civil War by knowing that the event determined what kind of nation the United States would be. The Civil War is the most significant conflict in American history; it had a revolutionary, social, and political impact that continues to be felt today. We were taught the civil war was primarily fought because of slavery but in truth “there were many causes of the civil war, including differences between northern and southern states on the idea of slavery, as well as trade, tariffs, and states rights.” The title of the book, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil, expresses two meanings in Tony Horwitz’s considerate and engaging exploration of the role of the American Civil War in the modern world of the South. The first connotation of the title signifies to Horwitz’s personal interest in the war. As the grandson of a Russian Jew, who also enjoyed reading
Book summary: Confederates in the Attic addresses the life of Tony Horwitz: a man from the North, who decided to take an expedition down South to figure out how the Civil War affected America. As Horwitz illustrates in Confederates in the Attic, the Civil War is far from over. Horwitz, determined to find the answers to this conflict, treks through the South, seeking to explain man's longtime obsession with a war that divided the nation. Speaking to historians and Civil War reenactors of all kinds, he finds that people are still contemporarily split when it comes to the war and current complications in society. On his endeavour, He collects an abundant amount of information, which created a challenge when attempting to draw a broad conclusion. Horwitz learns how contrasting the views of the war are between the north and south. He learns the way people use history to suit their own personal needs, and explores the problems of race. While I believe Confederates in the Attic is an excellent calligraphy on the ongoing history ...
The American Civil War is one of the biggest turning points in American history. It marks a point of major separation in beliefs from the North and the South and yet somehow ends in a major unification that is now called the United States of America. It still to date remains the bloodiest war in American history. The book “This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War” by Drew Gilpin Faust better explains the change in thought from the American people that developed from the unexpected mass loss of soldiers that devastated the American people. Throughout this review, the reader will better understand the methods and theory of this book, the sources used, the main argument of the book, the major supporting arguments, and what the author did well and what the author didn’t do well.
The book “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought In The Civil War” by James M. McPherson examines the motivations of the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. McPherson wanted to understand why the men fought in the Civil War and why they fought so ferociously for such a large amount of time even though there was a huge possibility of death, disease and injurys.To answer the question regarding the reasons why men fought in the Civil War so viciously, and for such a long period of time, James McPherson studied countless amounts of letters, diaries and other mails that were written or sent by the soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
The book begins with an in-depth explanation of what happened in the latter stages of the Civil War. Major battles like Sayler’s Creek, High Bridge and Richmond are described through detailed language. For instance, at High Bridge, “Each man wages his own individual battle with a ferocity only a life-and-death situation can bring. Bullets pierce eyes. Screams and curses fill the air. The grassy plain runs blood red.” (page 61). All of these iconic Civil War battles led up to the Confederate surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse and the inescapable rebuilding of a new nation Abraham Lincoln had to deal with. Next, John Wilkes Booth is introduced and his pro-Confederate motives are made clear. His conspiracy to kill the president is described and his co-conspirators like Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt who also attempted to kill Secretary of State Seward a...
There are many different ways in which the war was represented to the public, including drawings, newspaper articles, and detailed stereographs. Stereographs such as John Reekie’s “The Burial Party” invoked mixed feelings from all of those who viewed it. It confronts the deaths caused by the Civil War as well as touches upon the controversial issue over what would happen to the slaves once they had been emancipated. This picture represents the Civil War as a trade-off of lives- fallen soldiers gave their lives so that enslaved black men and women could be given back their own, even if that life wasn’t that different from slavery. In his carefully constructed stereograph “The Burial Party,” John Reekie confronts the uncertainty behind the newly
The book ‘For Cause and Comrades’ is a journey to comprehend why the soldiers in the Civil War fought, why they fought so passionately, and why they fought for the long period of time. Men were pulling guns against other men who they had known their whole lives. McPherson’s main source of evidence was the many letters from the soldiers writing to home. One of the many significant influences was how the men fought to prove their masculinity and courage. To fight would prove they were a man to their community and country. Fighting also had to do with a duty to their family. Ideology was also a major motivating factor; each side thought they were fighting for their liberty. The soldier’s reputations were created and demolished on the battlefield, where men who showed the most courage were the most honored. Religion also played an important role because the second Great Awakening had just occurred. Their religion caused the men who thought of themselves as saved to be fearless of death, “Religion was the only thing that kept this soldier going; even in the trenches…” (McPherson, p. 76) R...
McPherson, James M.; The Atlas of the Civil War. Macmillan: 15 Columbus Circle New York, NY. 1994.
In James McPherson’s novel, What They Fought For, a variety of Civil War soldier documents are examined to show the diverse personal beliefs and motives for being involved in the war. McPherson’s sample, “is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers” (McPherson, 17) meaning he discusses what the ordinary soldier fought for. The Confederacy was often viewed as the favorable side because their life style relied on the war; Confederates surrounded their lives with practices like slavery and agriculture, and these practices were at stake during the war. On the other hand, Northerners fought to keep the country together. Although the Civil War was brutal, McPherson presents his research to show the dedication and patriotism of the soldiers that fought and died for a cause.
This type of novel is recommended for anyone interested in the Civil War. Not too many books explore the southern battles, especially from a Confederates soldier’s point of view. Bahr does an excellent job at capturing the essence of the Civil War and its affects on the people involved. The novel was nominated for several awards, earning the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, won the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book. The book showed some popularity and sold 10,000 copies, but was heavily overshadowed by another...
On Easter of 1873 the city of Colfax experienced what is considered to be the last, but bloodiest battle of the Civil War and the end of the Reconstruction Era. This devastating event is known as the Colfax Massacre. In hopes of intimidating African Americans to keep them from voting, the Colfax Massacre resulted in the deaths of hundreds of black men. All of the incidents that occurred in the narrative were a result of the racism whites had against African-Americans which makes this one of the major themes of the book. The prevalence of racism in Colfax leads to many violent outbreaks, thus making violence a reoccurring theme in the narrative. In Nicholas Lemann’s work, Redemption: The Last Battle of The Civil War, Lemann illustrates the themes of racism, and the
The sacrifice of the lives of so many soldiers gave Lincoln a new perspective on life, liberty, and freedom and now Lincoln is no longer defending slavery. Before the Civil War, the “Union” tried to ignore slavery and the fact that blacks were actually included in the Declaration of Independence. This was now recognized by Lincoln and the rest of the nation as the essence of a democratic government. The sacrifices of the Union soldiers ensured a government geared by the people and for the people.
The book, “Confederates in the Attic” has various themes, but a few major ones can easily be pointed out. First, it would be how the civil war seems to have an impact on every single person in the south in some way. Which ultimately shows how people like to feel as if they’re unique in some way, or special, hence why many southerners like to point out their famous ancestors in the Civil War. The other running theme in the book is the need to escape the fast pace reality of the modern world. The people who like to reenact, known as “reenactors”, and their obsession with being “hardcore” is the main example of this strong need for escape, as the simple life of the Civil War era can provide such escape. It 's like a hobby for them, but I doubt
In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom.
Throughout Tony Horwitz’s novel Confederates in the Attic an overarching theme of Southern Pride occurs. Tony gets first-hand experiences of what southern heritage means through a cross-country road trip visiting historic sights and meeting locals. Tony meets people from every walk of life and is open to their stories and historical information. He meets people who have been oppressed and the oppressors themselves. Many people show their pride through commemorating the past, in the south this often means commemorating the Civil War. Pride is coupled with the ways men and women choose to honor the Civil War, and the rift it has caused within racial tensions.
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a