Synopses & Reviews
During the Civil War, some Confederates sought to prove the distinctiveness of the s outhern people and to legitimate their desire for a separate national existence through the creation of a uniquely southern literature and culture. Michael Bernath follows the activities of a group of southern writers, thinkers, editors, publishers, educators, and ministers--whom he labels Confederate cultural nationalists--in order to trace the rise and fall of a cultural movement dedicated to liberating the South from its longtime dependence on Northern books, periodicals, and teachers. Bernath makes provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life within the Confederacy, and the perception of southern cultural distinctiveness.
Review
"A very clear and forcefully argued treatment of the drive for cultural independence in the Confederacy. It is based on exhaustive study of periodicals, pamphlets, and all kinds of printed matter produced during the Civil War. A most original and significant contribution to southern intellectual history and to the history of the Confederacy."--George C. Rable, author of Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!
Review
"This carefully and exhaustively researched book brings into sharp focus the sheer number--and the sheer persistence--of editors and educators who sought to create an intellectual culture in the South. Bernath's admirable study corrects anyone who thinks that wartime turmoil shut down the full-throated cry of antebellum Southern partisanship."--Steven Stowe, author of Doctoring the South: Southern Physicians and Everyday Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Review
"
Confederate Minds is the most comprehensive and the most sophisticated assessment of Confederate intellectual history we have."
-Tennessee Historical Quarterly
Review
"Serious students of Georgia history will... want [
Confederate Minds] on their shelves for the stories it does relate."
-Georgia Historical Quarterly
Review
"This valuable work finally puts to rest the notion that the Confederacy was an intellectual wasteland and that Confederates had nothing to say aside from their rebel yell."
-Journal of American History
Review
"A valuable book. It represents an enormous amount of research that will teach students of the Civil War a great deal about an important group of individuals who sought to realize Confederate nationalism."
-Georgia Historical Quarterly
About the Author
Michael T. Bernath is Charlton W. Tebeau Assistant Professor in American History at the University of Miami.