Fighting Words: An Illustrated History of Newspaper Accounts of the Civil War

by Andrew S. Coopersmith

Overview

An intriguing picture of life during the Civil War, through the newspapers of the period.

Delving into an untapped source to tell the story of the Civil War from an entirely new and fascinating perspective, Fighting Words provides a sweeping history of the conflict through colorful, idiosyncratic, and highly opinionated newspaper accounts from all sides of the conflict. A panorama-in-print of a fractious and frenzied nation through articles, editorials, and illustrations culled from more than eighty Civil War—era newspapers, most with markedly different agendas, Fighting Words is the perfect gift for Civil War buffs.

Coopersmith's innovative new study is a reminder of the way in which, then as now, our understanding of the world is shaped by and powerfully reflected in the media. Lavishly illustrated with more than one hundred facsimile reproductions from the newspapers themselves, many never before available to a contemporary audience, Fighting Words includes accounts of such events as the capture and occupation of New Orleans, the drive toward emancipation, the enlistment of black soldiers, the New York City draft riots, class conflict in the Confederacy, and the assassination of President Lincoln. Educational and entertaining, rousing and often contradictory, it reveals the vastly different priorities, worldviews, and political objectives that shaped the war and its outcome.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595581419
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	09/25/2006
Pages:	325
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew S. Coopersmith received his PhD in history from Harvard University. He lives in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

	List of Newspapers Cited	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction: This Is a War of Opinion	xiii
Part 1	Why They Fought
Chapter 1	First Shots	3
Chapter 2	Freedoms Worth Fighting For	25
Chapter 3	Slavery Alone Is the Cause of All the Trouble	47
Part 2	Confronting the Enemy
Chapter 4	War and Rumors of War: Manassas, 1861	67
Chapter 5	Occupied and Dishonored: New Orleans, 1862	85
Part 3	The Emancipation Proclamation
Chapter 6	Emancipation in Northern Eyes	103
Chapter 7	Emancipation in Southern Eyes	123
Chapter 8	Blacks in Union Blue	139
Part 4	Points of Crisis
Chapter 9	If We Are Subjugated We Will Do It Ourselves	157
Chapter 10	We Are Now in the Great Crisis of the War	175
Chapter 11	A Perfect Reign of Terror	193
Part 5	The Confederacy Undone
Chapter 12	Smashing Things to the Sea, and Onward	211
Chapter 13	We Must Employ Slavery If We Expect to Perpetuate Slavery	231
Part 6	Endings and Beginnings
Chapter 14	In the Loss of Lee, They Lose Everything	247
Chapter 15	The Greatest Crime of Modern Times	265
Chapter 16	From War to Peace	283
	Notes	301
	Index	313