Synopses & Reviews
The sixteen essays in this volume, all previously unpublished, address the little considered question of the role played by religion in the American Civil War. The authors show that religion, understood in its broadest context as a culture and community of faith, was found wherever the war was found. Comprising essays by such scholars as Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Drew Gilpin Faust, Mark Noll, Reid Mitchell, Harry Stout, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and featuring an afterword by James McPherson, this collection marks the first step towards uncovering this crucial yet neglected aspect of American history.
Review
"[B]right galaxy of essayists...Building on the best of existing work and breaking into new terrain"-- BooksandCulture
"[I]t will doubtless be of great value to students of the Civil War and/or American religion."--America Today Studies
Review
"...the essays offer many provocative new insights....the excellent essays in Religion and the American Civil War succeed brilliantly in the editors' goal of stimulating and deepening the study of religion during a critical era of American history."--Georgia Historical Quarterly
"...[an] excellent collection."--News and Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina
"...this volume...is one that should be given great consideration by anyone wishing to enrich his or her Civil War library. The essays contained within are well written, very well researched and documented, and contribute greatly to an underrated and misunderstood aspect of the Civil War."--The Civil War Library and Museum
"...religion and the American Civil War are two topics that relate to one another in fascinating and revelatory ways....Religion and the American Civil War stands as a welcomed addition to the study of American religious history and to the study of the Civil War."--Koinonia
"The essays...give voice to people who were not in charge but whose lives were nonetheless greatly impacted by the war. The resulting story is complex and multilayered and should stimulate the interest of a wide range of readers....All readership levels will benefit from this book."--Choice
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction, Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, Charles Reagan Wilson
Overview
1. Religion and the American Civil War, Philip Shaw Paludan
Ideas
2. The Bible and Slavery, Mark A. Noll
3. Religion in the Collapse of the Union, Eugene D. Genovese
4. Church, Honor, and Secession, Bertram Wyatt-Brown
5. The Coming of the Lord: The Northern Protestant Clergy and the Civil War Crisis, George M. Fredrickson
6. "Wholesome Reading Purifies and Elevates the Man": The Religious Military Press in the Confederacy, Kurt O. Berends
7. "Yankee Faith" and Southern Redemption: White Southern Baptist Ministers, 1850-1880, Paul Harvey
8. Stonewall Jackson and the Providence of God, Daniel W. Stowell
9. Lincoln's Sermon on the Mount: The Second Inaugural, Ronald C. White
10. Days of Judgement, Days of Wrath: The Civil War and the Religious Imagination of Women Writers, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
11. "Without Pilot or Compass": Elite Women and Religion in the Civil War South, Drew Gilpin Faust
12. Catholic Religion, Irish Ethnicity, and the Civil War, Randall M. Miller
13. Christian Soldiers?: Perfecting the Confederacy, Reid Mitchell
Places
14. Civil War, Religion and Communications: Richmond as a Case Study, Harry S. Stout and Christopher Grasso
15. Religion and the Results of the Civil War, Samual S. Hill
Comparisons
16. Religion and the American Civil War in Comparative Perspective, Charles Reagan Wilson
Afterward, James M. McPherson
Contributors
Index