Thursday, January 11, 2007

From Nations, Markets and War, to War's Relentless Hand

The Civil War Memory blog has helpful posts on new books. Here's just a bit, and links:

Nicholas and Peter Onuf, Nations, Markets and War (University of Virginia Press, 2006):
In this provocative interdisciplinary study, Nicholas and Peter Onuf argue that the American Civil War was the first great war between modern nations, emerging from the wreckage of a federal union that was supposed to secure perpetual peace. Situating conceptions of nationhood and war in the broader context of modern history, the authors draw attention to overlooked aspects of liberal thought that stand in tension with the ahistorical individuals and markets that are so familiar to us today.

For more, click here.


Another new book is Mark H. Dunkelman, War's Relentless Hand: Twelve Tales of Civil War Soldiers (LSU Press, 2006):
Dunkelman manages to locate stories which remind us that each soldier experienced the war in their own way. One of the most interesting stories involves Private Milton H. Bush who managed to find a substitute only to discover in 1864 that his name had never been taken off the muster rolls. Bush was forced to join the army in 1864 and while his paper work requesting a discharge based on the obvious mistake that had been made was working its way through the military's bureaucracy his unit was ordered to Georgia.

For more on this one, click here.