The Northern Home Front during the Civil War

by Paul A. Cimbala, Randall M. Miller

Overview

With a new preface and updated historiographical essay.

Based on recent scholarship and deep research in primary sources, especially the letters and diaries of "ordinary people," The Northern Home Front during the Civil War is the first full narrative history and analysis of the northern home front in almost a quarter-century. It examines the mobilization, recruitment, management, politics, costs, and experience of war from the perspective of the home front, with special attention to the ways the war affected the ideas, identities, interests, and issues shaping people's lives, and vice versa. The book looks closely at people's responses to war's demands, whether in supporting the Union cause or opposing it, and it measures the ways the war transformed society and economy or simply reconfirmed ideas and reinforced practices already underway. As The Northern Home Front during the Civil War reveals, issues and concerns of emancipation, conscription, civil liberties, economic policies and practices, religion, party politics, war management, popular culture, and work were all part of what Lincoln rightly termed "a People's Contest" and as much as the armies in the field determined the outcome of the nation's ordeal by fire. As The Northern Home Front during the Civil War shows, understanding the experience of the women and men on the home front is essential to realizing Walt Whitman's oft-quoted call to get "the real war" into the books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781531501938
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Series:	The North's Civil War
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Paul A. Cimbala (Author)
Paul A. Cimbala is Professor Emeritus of History at Fordham University, The Bronx, New York. His published works include Under the Guardianship of the Nation: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Reconstruction of Georgia, 1865-1870 and Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War. With Randall M. Miller, he has edited several essay collections dealing with the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Randall M. Miller (Author)
Randall M. Miller is Professor Emeritus of History at Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia. He is the author or editor of numerous books on a variety of subjects, including the Civil War, Reconstruction, slavery, religion, and politics. Among his Civil War-related books are, as co-editor, Religion and the American Civil War; The Birth of the Grand Old Party: The Republicans' First Generation; and Women and the American Civil War: North-South Counterpoints.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Fordham UniversityPress Edition | ix

Introduction | xv

Chapter One: Communities on the Verge of War | 1

Chapter Two: The Secession Crisis | 13

Chapter Three: Fort Sumter and the Patriotic Response | 23

Chapter Four: Rallying to the Colors | 33

Chapter Five: Soldiers and Civilians as Neighbors | 43

Chapter Six: Incomplete Families | 53

Chapter Seven: Pastimes with Purpose | 67

Chapter Eight: Knowing War | 79

Chapter Nine: Paying for the War | 91

Chapter Ten: Producing for the War | 105

Chapter Eleven: Politics and Dissent | 119

Chapter Twelve: Emancipation, Conscription, and Dissent | 133

Chapter Thirteen: Th e Transition from War to Peace | 147

Notes | 161

Bibliographic Essay | 215

Index | 231

A photo essay follows p. 118.

What People are Saying About This

Michael S. Green

“Journalist Eric Sevareid once said, ‘War happens inside a man.’ It also happens inside a woman, and inside homes and schools and churches, sometimes without our realizing it. Its effects may seem limited or may be far-reaching. Thanks to Paul Cimbala and Randall Miller, we now know better than we ever have before how far the Civil War reached inside the lives of those who remained on the home front. No one who cares about the Civil War should be without this book.”

Nicole Etcheson

“Clearly written and based on the most recent scholarship, The Northern Home Front during the Civil War is the first comprehensive overview of the Union home front in twenty years. Cimbala and Miller combine the personal experiences of those who lived through the war with the latest scholarship, paying particular attention to the experiences of women and children, African Americans, and immigrants.”

Paul D. Escott

“Cimbala and Miller have produced a volume that gives broad, comprehensive coverage to the northern home front. Beyond all its other virtues, it is a delight to read, and the numerous, apt quotations make the experiences of northerners come alive and give the reader a real sense of this important period in U.S. history.”

Lorien Foote

“This book is the place to start for readers who want to understand how the North’s diverse communities responded to war and how the conflict penetrated into people’s everyday experience. It offers a valuable overview of every imaginable topic and makes the personal stories of ordinary people come alive."

Editorial Reviews

. . . Cimbala and Miller have created an exemplary history of the home front told through multiple perspectives, and their in-depth bibliographical essay of books published on the topic provides numerous resources for further exploration.

Civil War Book Review

The Northern Home Front During the Civil War would be an excellent book to assign to undergrads in a class on the Northern experience of the war and possibly a Civil War survey.

on the first edition Civil War Book Review

Updated scholarship and an excellent bibliographic essay make the current volume worth the price. . . . In all, a worthwhile purchase, handsomely produced and well written. Summing up: recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

on the first edition Choice

Paul Cimbala and Randall Miller are editors extraordinaire. . . . In this short volume, the authors provide ample evidence of how much the lives Northerners were eager to get on with, as well as the nation they inhabited, were changed. A synthesis of recent scholarship on the war, The Northern Home Front During the Civil War also features original research that highlights how everyday Americans in Northern communities sought to make sense of a war that came into their homes and communities and stayed there too long.

on the first edition Civil War History

Updated scholarship and an excellent bibliographic essay make the current volume worth the price. . . . In all, a worthwhile purchase, handsomely produced and well written. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.” —Choice

From the Publisher