Martial Metaphors

Soldiers' Perspectives on the Civil War

Joseph Allan Frank

The book draws on letters, diaries, recent books and articles in History, but also relies on multi-disciplinary sources in politics and literature, along transnational comparisons to place the events in a broader perspective. The book invites the reader to embark with the soldiers and some civilians on their journey into the murderous events across the nation. The passage began with the heroic clichés that prevailed during the initial organization and embarkation of the armies. However the shock of battle and the weary life in camps brought new images of the war such as a bleak vision seeing the war as a chaotic absurdity, others began to suspect conspiratorial agencies behind the conflict, yet others sought to galvanize their support for the hard road ahead by invoking melodramatic metaphors as a crusade, and means of national redemption and punishment of the adversary. As the fighting intensified after the initial clashes of 1862, some believed that the hard war opened the way for imposing revolutionary changes such as upending the South’s social structure providing social, economic and political equality to a new class—the ex-slaves. Finally, there were some who felt the war was a Sophoclean-Greek tragedy because the outcome and nature of the war proved contrary to what they had assumed the struggle would be about and what it would be like.

University Press of America

Pages: 378 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6790-6 • Hardback • July 2016 • $79.00 • (£61.00)

978-0-7618-6791-3 • eBook • July 2016 • $75.00 • (£58.00)

Subjects: History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), History / Military / Ancient Warfare, History / North America, History / Social History, History / Modern / 19th Century

Martial Metaphors

Soldiers' Perspectives on the Civil War

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The book draws on letters, diaries, recent books and articles in History, but also relies on multi-disciplinary sources in politics and literature, along transnational comparisons to place the events in a broader perspective. The book invites the reader to embark with the soldiers and some civilians on their journey into the murderous events across the nation. The passage began with the heroic clichés that prevailed during the initial organization and embarkation of the armies. However the shock of battle and the weary life in camps brought new images of the war such as a bleak vision seeing the war as a chaotic absurdity, others began to suspect conspiratorial agencies behind the conflict, yet others sought to galvanize their support for the hard road ahead by invoking melodramatic metaphors as a crusade, and means of national redemption and punishment of the adversary. As the fighting intensified after the initial clashes of 1862, some believed that the hard war opened the way for imposing revolutionary changes such as upending the South’s social structure providing social, economic and political equality to a new class—the ex-slaves. Finally, there were some who felt the war was a Sophoclean-Greek tragedy because the outcome and nature of the war proved contrary to what they had assumed the struggle would be about and what it would be like.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 378 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6790-6 • Hardback • July 2016 • $79.00 • (£61.00)

978-0-7618-6791-3 • eBook • July 2016 • $75.00 • (£58.00)

Subjects: History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), History / Military / Ancient Warfare, History / North America, History / Social History, History / Modern / 19th Century

Author

Professor Frank got a Licence en Sciences Politique et Diplomatique at the Université de Bruxelles, did a Master Degree in International Relations at Georgetown University and a Ph. D. in History at the University of Ottawa in Canada where he taught in the Political Science Department until his retirement. He has published in several learned journals such as Armed Forces and Society and the Journal of Military History. He has also written two previous books “Seeing the Elephant:” Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh (with George Reaves) and “With Ballot and Bayonet:” The Political Socialization of American Civil War Soldiers.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Homeric Call to Arms
1. The Road to Thermopylae
1. Chaotic Absurdity
1. Conspiracy
1. Career Opportunity
1. Melodramatic Messianism, Punishment and Redemption
1. Revolutionary War
1. Sophoclean Tragedy
Epilogue

Martial Metaphors

Soldiers' Perspectives on the Civil War

Joseph Allan Frank

Martial Metaphors

Soldiers' Perspectives on the Civil War

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