Product Description

Abraham Lincoln is the most revered president in American history, but the woman at the center of his life—his wife, Mary—has remained a historical enigma. One of the most tragic and mysterious of nineteenth-century figures, Mary Lincoln and her story symbolize the pain and loss of Civil War America. Authoritative and utterly engrossing, Mrs. Lincoln is the long-awaited portrait of the woman who so richly contributed to Lincoln's life and legacy.

Q: Why did you decide to write about Mrs. Lincoln in this book?
A: Of course, it was a daunting task to take on this project in the wake of so much new information on Lincoln and his world, and with the Lincoln Bicentennial looming on the horizon.But I knew that Mary Lincoln was being lost in the shuffle of the new Lincoln literature. With an outpouring of new work on Abraham Lincoln every year it's been over twenty years since the last biography of Mary. When it was written, we did not have the cache of new letters (uncovered by Jason Emerson) which showed Mary’s state of mind during her incarceration. We also did not have the past quarter century of Civil War scholarship which has contextualized and expanded our appreciation of what it truly meant when families were divided by war.

Q: Was Lincoln’s wife a southern sympathizer?
A: No, and this is one of the misconceptions I hope to counter in my study, although I do portray her as a daughter of the Bluegrass, and brought up to be a proper southern lady. However, she had always been unconventional--temperamental, articulate, not only better read than her husband (and conversing with diplomats on state occasions in French) but she had more than ten years of formal education. She also became a partisan abolitionist when he befriended Charles Sumner, and was opposed to anyone who advocated disunion.At the same time, when Elmer Ellsworth, the war’s first casualty--shot while tearing down a rebel flag in Virginia in May 1861--was killed, his murderer was shot dead--a brother of a Dr. Jackson from her hometown of Lexington. So in this first armed encounter when Virginia seceded, the Lincolns mourned Ellsworth’s passing, but Mrs. Lincoln could appreciate as well the sorrow of the Jacksons in Kentucky at losing a brother, a son, and the fratricidal nature of the conflict.

Q: So were the Lincolns racist as some modern critics have suggested?
A: I think both Abraham and Mary reflected the prejudices of their era, but not only the wealth of new work on race and gender over the past few decades has informed my approach in Mrs. Lincoln, but some of the real, human aspects of life in the White House were new to me.

Q: How so?
A: Mary Lincoln’s relationship with the black women who were a part of the White House staff, as well as her crucial relationship with Elizabeth Keckly (whose biography appeared in 2003)needed a fresh approach. I used memoirs and interview material drawn from the lives of those who knew the Lincolns in the White House. I was especially impressed to discover that Abraham Lincoln, who doted on his sons, had taken his son Tad to the Slade house on Massachusetts Ave. N.W., where he might play with the African American children of his father’s trusted aide, William Slade. So it was really these kind of details that I hope will bring both the Lincolns to life.

Q: A lot of people want to know if Mrs. Lincoln was crazy?
A: My degrees from Harvard and Princeton are not in medicine--so I cannot diagnose. I can say that I felt she did deteriorate mentally during her time in the White House and my study attempts to place into context some of her challenges and failings. But I also wanted to show her relationship with the press, her relationship with her children, and especially the many trials she faced as a widow...which is why I begin the book with Lincoln’s assassination as the defining moment of her life.

Q: Do you think Mary Lincoln could give any advice to Michelle Obama?
A: Many of Lincoln’s critics went after his wife to get at him--using the folk wisdom, if you want to destroy a house, set fire to the thatch. The wife of our 44th President has shown wit and humor and intellect that mirrors perhaps manyattributes Mary Lincoln brought to the White House, but Michelle Obama has advantages that Mrs. Lincoln did not have.But the one thing I think the campaign has already taught our newest occupant of the White House is to not let those who hang on her every word and focus on fashion define her. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Include more source material
Not bad, but seems like it had the possibility to be more interesting. Several times the author alluded to or mentioned scandals or falling outs between people without explaining it. Sometimes this was discussed later on in the book and sometimes it was in the endnotes, although there were no markers to indicate the presence of endnotes. Sometimes these mentions were not really discussed at all. Some more quotes from primary sources might have been nice to see what people were saying about Mary Lincoln in their own words rather than through just the author's interpretation. Overall, not bad but not really exciting either.

A Tragic Biography of a Maligned First Lady
I liked this biography of Mary Lincoln, one of the most, if not the most maligned First Ladies in history.Even after years of Lincoln study, I knew too little about Mary so I was glad to learn more.The book seems fair to her, not shying away from her mental illness and the sad end to her life.

Mental illness apparently ran in the Todd family, but Mary was educated (thanks to her father) and had a good head for politics.She and her husband were good partners in his career, until the White House when the war and too many advisors shunted her aside.Also contributing to her mental problems were the loss of three of her four sons, the wedge between her family created by the war, and her husband's bouts of depression.Then of course his assassination destroyed her world and once again she was shunted aside by powerful men.

Her widowhood was torture for her as she sought financial and emotional stability.Most people know her surviving son Robert committed her to a mental institution, and later she ended her days as a recluse in her sister's home in Springfield, IL.This book gives a lot more information about what led to these events in a way not biased toward Mary or Robert.I recommend this book.

Mrs. Lincoln
The book arrived on the the earliest date in the time frame they gave and was perfect.I will look for that supplier and buy from them again if possible.Donna

Left me wanting more
The author, Catherine Clinton, repeatedly decries the poor treatment Mary Todd Lincoln recieved from the press, and the almost universal hostility toward her without ever really exploring the causes for this negative treatment.

Further, while the book has lots of information in it, some of it seems simply strung together, without any anlysis or context.

good introduction
This book was a good inroduction to the subject of Mrs.Lincoln and is a quick read. I thought it was very well written. Occasionally the author seemed to "defend" Mary Todd when she was the subject of contraversy which added some unnecessary bias to the book. Overall, I think it was a good "book club" selection, which is how I came to read the book in the first place. ... Read more

Product Description
This pioneering study of the much-mythologized Southern belle offers the first serious look at the lives of white women and their harsh and restricted place in the slave society before the Civil War. Drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of hundreds of planter wives and daughters, Clinton sets before us in vivid detail the daily life of the plantation mistress and her ambiguous intermediary position in the hierarchy between slave and master.

"The Plantation Mistress challenges and reinterprets a host of issues related to the Old South. The result is a book that forces us to rethink some of our basic assumptions about two peculiar institutions -- the slave plantation and the nineteenth-century family. It approaches a familiar subject from a new angle, and as a result, permanently alters our understanding of the Old South and women's place in it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

The Plantation Mistress
Most people know what they want when buying, and when completing a set like I was, most importantly was the shape and condition. The seller was correct and honest in his or her description which I find admirable. Thank you. I highly recommend this seller.

The Revealed Myth of the Plantation Mistress
This book is a resaerch report... and is written in that format!There are many interesting details in it.. that are all well documented. This is a book club selection for our book club as we are having a luncheon at an old plantation this week.I did not realize it was a research report until I had the book and began reading it... I greatly enjoyed learning a lot, but I probably would not have kept reading it except for the book club commitment because of the format and it is really outside my research areas of interest.This book was written by a good researcher who does not live in the south. As a result she seems to have developed an objective view. She has used many resources and all are cited to develop the ideas. This is an important research paper about history where there are many myths... and very little has been written about the real life of women at that time. Usually books show the glorified life of a Plantation Mistress. People always think of the lady of a large plantation as having a life of leisure and supportive care - which is not true. A Plantation Mistress actually lived a hard life with many responsibilities, usually arriving in this management situation without any training or experience. This is not a leisurely read... but a revelation of a Plantation Mistress' life. I am glad I did read this book in retrospect..particularly as a southern woman living in the south, it has increased my undestanding of what has gone before.

Good Despite the Feminist Harping
Plantation Mistriss paints a dim portrait of the lives of the allegedly pampered southern flowers of womanhood who were the (behind the scenes) engineers of southern aristocracy.Since many of them assumed the mantle of responsibility at ages as young as fourteen and commonly at around sixteen to eighteen this book is particularly fascinating.It is also chock full of detail on everything from the Plantation Mistriss's ability to supervise a hog killing to the knitting of socks.Her day was never done. Then the poor dears had to deal with the complicated sexual politics of the day. They were doomed to withhold themselves sexually in order to maintain the notions that sex was a chore for a lady thus robbing them of any standing to demand fidelity from their husbands. All these women could do was seeth while their husbands snuck off to the slave quarters. Being a sexual pedestal had its price.

Factually, this book is a gold mine of information and detail.It does have a typical feminist undercurrent of victimization but that is a minor flaw.Academics are just compelled to wow the reader with their ability to extrapolate deep meaning out of simple facts.However, the non-existence of books which utilize the availability of direct sources leaves us to rely on academics who pour over archives rather than thinking to ask. It's too bad no one thought to commit to paper the first hand accounts of former membes of the pre-war south who lived well until the 1940s and even into the 50s.Rather we have only academic analysis of reems of archive material.

This book is very entertaining and informative despite its feminist agenda.

Dull, boring.
This book is so dry I couldn't even finish it.The subject is fascinating but the material is presented in a way that is just plain boring.

An honest description of the role of plantation mistresses
I think the negative reviewers who discredit the book for being biased are, in fact, displaying their own prejudices. I have searched through the available literature on this subject, which is incredibly sparse, and this is the first book I have found that even attempted to portray these women's lives with any detail or realism.The author researched this topic as thoroughly as possible and obviously strives to present a balanced view.I cannot understand the complaint that the author jumps from one time period to another, as I found the book very easy to follow.I suspect that many readers are buying this book expecting a romantic fantasy of plantation life.If you really want to know what life was like for a plantation misress - read this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
A British stage star turned Georgia plantation mistress, Fanny Kemble is perhaps best remembered as a critic of slavery--and an influential opponent of this institution during the years leading up to the Civil War. By the mid-1830s, American society was firmly in the grip of Kemble's celebrity as an actress--young ladies adopted "Fanny Kemble curls," a tulip was named in her honor, and lecture attendance at Harvard fell so sharply on afternoons of Kemble's matinees that professors threatened to cancel classes. Catherine Clinton's insightful biography chronicles these early portraits of Fanny's life and shows how her role in society changed drastically after her bitter and short-lived marriage to the heir of a Georgia plantation owner, whom she derisively called her "lord and master." We witness the publication of Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation, in which Kemble hauntingly records the "simple horror" and misery she saw among the slaves. The raw power of her words made for an influential anti-slavery tract, which swayed European sentiment toward the Union cause. The book was embraced by Northern critics as "a permanent and most valuable chapter in our history" (Atlantic Monthly). In Fanny Kemble's Civil Wars, Catherine Clinton reveals how one woman's life reflected in microcosm the public battles--over slavery, the role of women, and sectionalism--that fueled our nation's greatest conflict and have permanently marked our history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The life of an impressive nineteenth century woman
British stage idol Fanny Kemble (1809-93) married a wealthy American slave-owner in 1834. Although the marriage turned out disastrously, it provided a bonanza for historians. No shrinking violet and a prolific writer, Fanny wrote profusely on slavery, America, and women's issues till her death.

The Kembles were England's leading theatrical family. Sarah Siddons was her aunt, but Fanny became equally celebrated.Despite this, her family were chronically in debt, and the American tour was one of innumerable unsuccessful efforts to make money.Soon after arriving she fell in love with Pierce Butler, a Georgia plantation owner, who made her stop working after they married.She quickly regretted her decision, but there was little a woman could do in that era.When Butler moved to his plantation, Fanny encountered slavery first hand and did not like what she saw.She complained bitterly and protested the slaves' treatment.Worse, she outraged her husband and the neighbors by expressing her opinions in print and in the north.Perhaps her most impressive accomplishment was getting a divorce, a nearly impossible feat in the nineteenth century.It took fifteen years. Except for public readings she never acted again, but her personality and writing sustained her celebrity until the end of the century.

Like many nineteenth century figures, Kemble seemed to spend half her day writing. She kept a journal, sent and received a torrent of letters, published a dozen books and scores of articles and essays.Catherine Clinton, Professor of History at Baruch College (The Plantation Mistress, 1982) has obviously read it all and transformed it into an entertaining account of one of the most colorful women of her time.

You Won't Be Able to Put the Book Down
A combination of excellent writting and the fascinating subject -Fanny Kemble - make this a book you'll find difficult to put down.After reading this book, I, too, long to know more about this charismatic woman.Regardless of whether or not your interests lie in learning more about women during the Civil War, Fanny Kemble's life and times is a thoroughly compelling story.

I originally saw Catherine Clinton on C-Span Book TV (yes, I admit I do watch it! LOL).Her enthusiasm regarding Fanny Kemble was clearly evident and the book does not disappoint.I do want to point out that I've chosen to read Clinton's book before I've read the journals which she edited.

With respect to Fanny Kemble, I find her to be a study in contrast.On the one hand she craved independence of thought and financial means yet she appears to have despised the very things that would bring her either independence, financial security or both.For example, she clearly was an excellent performer - something which would have allowed her independence of both thought and financial security - yet it appears she in many instances indicates she disliked performing.

After reading Catherine Clinton's book, I can't help but wonder what the literary world lost when she married Pierce Butler.Would we have another Jane Austen if she had remained unmarried or if she had a supportive or better match for a husband? Unfortunately, we're only left to guess.

Informative
I checked this book out from the library and read it the week prior to our family's vacation to Charleston, SC.I found it very informative and I enjoyed recognizing the names of families, towns and historical landmarks mentioned in the book, especially St. Simon's Island, which I enjoyed reading about in Eugenia Price's series of books on that particular area.I have a great interest in women's experiences, pre and post-civil war, and would not think twice about adding this book to my ever-growing collection of that era.

A Not-So-Unlikely Abolitionist
In 1836, just two years after famed British actress Fanny Kemble married Pierce Butler, he inherited the second largest plantation in Georgia.Hermemoir of planter-society life, published in 1863 as Journal of a Residenceon a Georgia Plantation, provided, according to Author Catherine Clinton,"a disquieting glimpse into the world the slaveholders made." Clinton holds the Ph.D. in history from Princeton University, and she hastaught at several colleges and universities including Brandeis, Brown, andHarvard.She is widely regarded as one of the preeminent historians of theantebellum south and of American women in the 19th century, and herexpertise and erudition come through on every page of this fascinatingbook.In the interest of fairness, I must disclose that Clinton and I werecollege classmates, and I took several courses with her.She was abrilliant student, and her success as a professional historian waspredestined.

Kemble belonged to a family of prominent BritishShakespearean actors, and her earliest fame came as the title heroine inRomeo and Julie and in performances in other classics in London beginningin 1829, when she was only 19.In 1832, she arrived in the United Statesfor a two-year theatrical tour. We are, however, primarily interested inKemble's life after her 1834marriage to Pierce Butler, who inherited theplantations on Georgia's Sea Islands in 1836.Kemble and Butler lived fortheir first years together in Philadelphia, but Butler tenaciously heldonto extreme social attitudes.In Southern antebellum culture, accordingto Clinton, "the white male patriarch ruled unchallenged, and"Fanny could best demonstrate her loyalty, Butler maintained, byagreeing with him in every regard."That was virtually impossible forthe spirited Kemble, who found her husband to be "rude andunkind" and his mental faculties "lackluster."In contrast,the portraits of Kemble in this book show her to be a woman of obviousintelligence and seriousness of purpose.The Butler-Kemble union failedfrom the beginning and, in 1835, according to Clinton, Kemble expressedwillingness to give Butler custody of their infant daughter if he wouldallow her to leave.Butler rejected the idea, and Kemble remainedmiserable until their divorce in 1849.

From an early age, Kemble hadimagined herself to be a "literary lioness," and, in despair, sheturned to writing.In the spring of 1835, Kemble wrote a "long andvehement treatise against negro slavery."According to Clinton,Kemble was "[a]lways given to social commentary with a theatricalflair." Clinton observes that "Kemble's vivid writings [are]replete with insights on women's rights, slavery, and race," and theyoffer valuable insights into the realities of plantation life. ButClinton notes that "[a]s Mrs. Pierce Butler, the wife of the secondlargest slaveholder in Georgia," Kemble "found herself in aprecarious position."The peculiar institution afforded her a life ofleisure, but, according to Clinton, she "found herself increasinglydrawn to the plight of the slaves."After arriving in Georgia in1838, Kemble established a slave hospital and a slave nursery, and, indefiance of state law, she taught the alphabet to a bright slave.It wasnot until 1863, however, that Kemble consented to the publication ofJournal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation, which Clinton describes as"the vivid and haunting diatribe against human bondage composed duringher stay on the Butler plantations in the winter of 1838-39." According to Clinton: "Fanny Kemble...characterized Butler as adespot; Butler's friends portrayed him as a peerless master.The truth laysomewhere in between."A review in the Atlantic Monthly calledKemble's Journal "the first ample, lucid, faithful, detailed account,from the actual head-quarters of a slave plantation in this country, of theworkings of the system."Horace Greeley's Tribune also had highpraise for Kemble's Journal.But Kemble's younger daughter, who supportedthe Confederate States during the Civil War, wrote in 1881 that"nothing would ever induce me to have [the Georgia Journal] in myhouse....I never can forgive it."According to Clinton: "Oneintimate of both women complained that Fanny Kemble thought all the South'sproblems stemmed from slavery, while [the younger daughter] believed allthe problems of the South were created by African Americans."Clintonremarks that "the book has more greatly influenced twentieth-centuryhistorians than Civil War-era politicians," and she notes that,beginning in the 1950s, slavery scholars began citing Kemble as anauthority.

Clinton makes extensive use of Kemble's memoirs andcorrespondence, but I was a bit surprised that Clinton did not quote moreextensively from the Georgia Journal in this book. Clinton may have hopedto inspire readers to delve more deeply into Kemble's impressive oeuvre inthe original, including Fanny Kemble's Journals, edited by Clinton andpublished earlier this year by Harvard University Press.That book offersselections from Kemble's 11 volumes of autobiographical writings and is, Isuspect, fascinating.I do not understand precisely why this book issubtitled "The Story of America's Most Unlikely Abolitionist." Early in the book, Clinton writes that Kemble developed a "renownedaffinity for `plain folk,' and she clearly had a gift for socialcommentary.So, her marriage to a wealthy planter notwithstanding, I donot find it surprising that Kemble took a public position on the mostserious question in mid-19th century America.But I consider this point aquibble: Despite the subtitle, this book is wonderful.Although generallydevoted to significant political and social questions, cameo appearances byKemble's circle of noteworthy friends and acquaintances, includingWashington Irving, Louis Agassiz, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry WadsworthLongfellow, and Henry James, make it fun as well. So does the fact thatKemble's elder daughter married a Pennsylvania physician in 1859, and theirson, Owen Wister, Jr., achieved fame in his own right as the author of thenovel The Virginian and the commentary for a famous volume of illustrationsof Frederic Remington.This biography details a remarkable 19th-centurylife.I recommend Fanny Kemble's Civil Wars and everything else written byCatherine Clinton without qualification. ... Read more

Product Description
Celebrated for her courageous exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of nineteenth-century America's most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman? To John Brown, leader of the Harpers Ferry slave uprising, she was General Tubman. For the many slaves she led north to freedom, she was Moses. To the slaveholders who sought her capture, she was a thief and a trickster. To abolitionists, she was a prophet. Now, in a biography widely praised for its impeccable research and its compelling narrative, Harriet Tubman is revealed for the first time as a singular and complex character, a woman who defied simple categorization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Seller is good and honest about his product
I wanted this book after reading a short story from msn.I went to Barnes and Borders, but they didn't have it.I found this seller, and was selling it very dear.I figured it was going to be in bad shape. But once I received it, it was brand NEW! I love reading this book, though my hearbreaks each time I imagine the agony and the torture the blacks have gone through.Thank you so much for your honesty.

Amazing Woman
It is not easy to find reliable information about nineteenth century slaves, but Catherine Clinton has uncovered about all that can be known for sure about this American hero. She supplements the facts with speculations and details about the history of slavery. Don't expect wall-to-wall coverage of Harriet Tubman here. There are lots of digressions, some of them lengthy, but not irrelevant if you are interested in slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War. They provide background. An index and an impressive bibliography are provided.

Also included is a selection of photos of the great conductor, whose striking face tells of triumph over suffering. A "neglected weed" as a child, Harriet Tubman overcame childhood frailty and abuse to become, said abolitionist John Brown, "one of the best and bravest persons on this continent." And one of the most interesting to read about. Would that more details were available. Because Tubman was an amazing woman, not only a "Moses" to her people but a strong, no-nonsense, self-liberated woman who beat impossible odds.

Where is Harriet?
Sorry to disappoint, but this book is not really about Harriet Tubman. I would liken it to a college student majoring in the histrory of slavery, with a minor in Harriet Tubman. I wanted to know more about this very great lady. I was disappointed.

Op/Ed or Nonfiction Book?
I got this book after a debate with a former co-worker about whether Harriet Tubman helped free 300 slaves or 75 slaves. He insisted it was 75, but I have read that it was 300 in several books and articles. He insisted that this book was a great source for research and facts, so I picked it up.

Cons: I love reading about Harriet Tubman, but this book seemed like it should've made the subtitle the main title "The Road to Freedom" instead of using Tubman's name or picture. There were so many antecdotes that didn't have a thing to do with Tubman--stories about white people in black face to free slaves she didn't even know, presidents, and so forth. But what bothered me was all of the opinions the author gave within this book. Is this supposed to be a nonfiction book or a really long op/ed? (Example: On page 58, the author talks about how Jerry Henry was "far from an ideal candidate for rescue" and the story of him being saved from slavery by a crowd. But she uses adjectives like "menacing." If this story is supposed to be fact based, I need to know WHAT made him menacing, not that she thinks he was menacing. The note (in the back) says he had domestic issues with the same women several times, but without the back story on Henry, I don't feel it was necessary to put that bit of information in there. I don't advocate men hitting women, but I'm also skeptical of the charges considering Black men were being slapped with incorrect charges even moreso during slavery days. Telling half stories does not lend to Tubman's story at all.

The author kept calling Tubman "Araminta." Once it was mentioned that her name was changed, I didn't understand why that was necessary. That's like calling Malcolm X "Malcolm Little" once he became a Muslim.

Pros: This book made me want to read the story of Jerry Henry to find out about the uproar and danger people went to to save this man. But do you see how this could be a con as well? I'm supposed to be reading this story to find out about Tubman, but I'm finding out more information about OTHER people even though Tubman is on the front cover.

After all the stories, either I looked over a page or it wasn't there, but I do not see how many slaves Tubman freed in this book. It says she was responsible for THOUSANDS of slaves being freed, which backs up my argument even more.

I couldn't even finish it
I was excited when I finally got the chance to read about Harriet Tubman, but when I started reading this book, my excitement went downhill. I don't know if the book just didn't capture my attention or if Harriet Tubman's life wasn't what I thought. Anyway I barely got through the book so can't say much about it except that I lost interest. ... Read more

Product Description
Black soldiers have fought and died in the Americas for centuries, forming a chain of warriors stretching back nearly 500 years. Yet their contribution to our nation"s history has been neglected, and the battles they"ve had to fight against racism and prejudice have often been as challenging as facing the enemy on the field of battle. This exciting story of African-American heroism traces the history of the black soldier, from the African explorers who accompanied Columbus to African Americans who took up arms in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and Desert Storm. These tales of heroism show young readers that while black soldiers were once systematically ignored within the armed forces, earning little praise and often dying for a nation that granted them few rights, black men and women rose to the occasion and distinguished themselves with each successive opportunity to prove themselves in combat and in the ranks. Ultimately, the sacrifices of these valiant soldiers led to today"s fully integrated armed services. ... Read more

Product Description
No American needs to be told that the Civil War brought the United States to a critical juncture in its history.The war changed forever the face of the nation, the nature of American politics, the status of African-Americans, and the daily lives of millions of people.Yet few of us understand how the war transformed gender roles and attitudes toward sexuality among Americans citizens.Divided Houses is the first book to address this sorely neglected topic, showing how the themes of gender, class, race, and sexuality interacted to forge the beginnings of a new society.

In this unique volume, historians Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber bring together a wide spectrum of critical viewpoints--all written by eminent scholars--to show how gender became a prism through which the political tensions of antebellum America were filtered and focused.For example, Divided Housesdemonstrates that the abolitionist movement was strongly allied with nineteenth-century feminism, and shows how the ensuing debates over sectionalism and, eventually, secession, were often couched in terms of gender. Northerners and Southerners alike frequently ridiculed each other as "effeminate": slaveowners were characterized by Yankees as idle and useless aristocrats, enfeebled by their "peculiar institution"; northerners were belittled as money-grubbers who lacked the masculine courage of their southern counterparts.

Through the course of the book, many fascinating subjects are explored, such as the new "manly" responsibilities both black and white men had thrust upon them as soldiers; the effect of the war on Southern women's daily actions on the homefront; the essential part Northern women played as nurses and spies; the war's impact on marriage and divorce; women's roles in the guerilla fighting; even the wartime dialogue on interracial sex.There is also a rare look at how gender affected the experience of freedom for African-American children, a discussion of how Harriet Beecher Stowe attempted to distract both her readers and herself from the ravages of war through the writing of romantic fiction, and a consideration of the changing relations between black men and a white society which, during the war, at last forced to confront their manhood.In addition, an incisive introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson helps place these various subjects in an overall historical context.

Nowhere else are such topics considered in a single, accessible volume.Divided Houses sheds new light on the entire Civil War experience--from its causes to its legacy--and shows how gender shaped both the actions and attitudes of those who participated in this watershed event in the history of America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Gender Wartime Crisis in a Historical Perspective
Divided Houses:Gender and the Civil War is a collection of essays pertaining to the crisis in gender relations that accompanied the Civil War in America.As a collection, the essays present a narrative that chronicles the various impacts on gender that affected men and women, the North and the South, as well as slaves and non-slaves.What emerges is a cohesive body of text that is informative, illuminating, and instructive. The themes most explored in this volume are those of empowerment through abolitionism.In The Civil War as a Crisis in Gender Relations by Leann Whites, the two groups most perceptive of the gender crisis were Northern feminists and black abolitionists.During the Civil War, the public status of motherhood increased.This leads to another theme that will later be explored in following essays, that of the State as family.In this first essay, Leann Whites argues that the Civil War created circumstances for gender equality, both diminishing white Southern male masculinity and increasing black manhood.Ideas of manhood during the Civil War are further investigated in Part II and in Reid Mitchell's Soldiering, Manhood, and Coming of Age:A Northern Volunteer.The journey from civilian to soldier was mirrored in the transition from boyhood to manhood, and the constitution of manhood evolved as a delicate balance of masculinity and manly restraint.During the Civil War, the body politic as well as the army assumed familial ties to facilitate solidarity.Despite the changes in notions of manhood, for the black male population the "empowerment" was not always beneficial.Jim Cullen's Gender and African-American Men details how conceptions of black manhood changed during the Civil War, with the mastery over one's own body leading to mastery in warfare.Despite being placed on some of the most dangerous fronts, black soldiers endured low pay and high disease in exchange for their mastery over their bodies. In Part III of Divided Houses:Gender and the Civil War, the themes move from issues of manhood to those relating to women.In Arranging a Doll's House:Refined Women as Union Nurses author Kristie Ross writes about female volunteers on hospital transports, and she draws from the familial theme by presenting the hospital transport as the rearrangement of a doll's house to appear domestic.Ross also reveals a sense of agency for women volunteers, claiming that many felt "...an eagerness to seize an occasion to escape the routine pattern of their lives and a familiarity with genteel standards of household organization." (101)Lyde Cullen Sizer's Acting Her Part:Narratives of Union Women Spies also deals with the issue of female agency during the Civil War, but Sizer further examines the repercussions women felt depending on whether they were white or black.For white women spies, their efforts were more dramatic than substantial, whereas for black abolitionists like Harriet Tubman the cause and consequences of being a spy were much more realistic.Sizer's essay is also an attempt to place female spy narratives in a literary context from which they have been excluded.Of all the essays in Divided Houses, none is more colorful and titillating than Michael Fellman's Women and Guerrilla Warfare.Through his dramatic prose, Fellman explores how peacetime morality was subverted through guerrilla warfare, with male guerrilla fighters attacking traditional values while physically attacking women.Fellman, doubtless, is presenting a form of psychological history by claiming "there was also an additional element here of bad boys acting out against a nagging, smothering mother." (151)For many Kansas guerrilla regiments during the Civil War, the "freeing" of slaves was an act of defiance rather than a moralistic pursuit. Guerrilla warfare finally reinforced the need for love, security, and family. The fourth part of Divided Houses closely examines dynamics on the Southern homefront.Peter Bardaglio's The Children of Jubilee:African-American Childhood in Wartime explains how prior to the Civil War, slave children were age-segregated but not gender-segregated.With freedom as a concept first emerging for many slaves during the Civil War, play activities among children became more gendered.Martha Hodes's Wartime Dialogues on Illicit Sex:White Women and Black Men further draws on the theme of black male power as a political issue emerging during the Civil War, which consequently led to sexuality itself becoming a political issue.With most yeoman farmers at war, the homefront became a location for "illicit" sex as well as the performative stage for class discord.The Southern states were not the only ones to feel the impact on gender relations that the Civil War created: Part V examines gender issues on the Northern homefront with Patricia R. Hill's Writing Out the War:Harriet Beecher Stowe's Averted Gaze.In Part VI, essays examine how the politics of Reconstruction became gendered, with Northern women beginning to campaign for the vote and new labor opportunities for African-American men and women.In spite of these advances, however, the ruling classes in the South still attempted to exert authority and black women were still subjected to southern white male violence, as evidenced in Catherine Clinton's concluding essay, Reconstructing Freedwomen. Divided Houses:Gender and the Civil War is a combination of various historiographical methodologies;cultural, social, psychological, intellectual and political, which simultaneously present a coherent and evocative study of wartime's affect on gender relations.In addition to mapping themes in gender relations during war, narratives of women's undertaking of professional and managerial duties while men were fighting in the Civil War provides a historical anchoring of the themes of female labor that were to arise again during the First, and especially Second, World War. ... Read more

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When Europeans settled in the early South, they quarreled over many things--but few imbroglios were so fierce as battles over land. Landowners wrangled bitterly over boundaries with neighbors and contested areas became known as "the devil's lane." Violence and bloodshed were but some of the consequences to befall those who ventured into these disputed territories.

The Devil's Lane highlights important new work on sexuality, race, and gender in the South from the seventeeth- to the nineteenth-centuries. Contributors explore legal history by examining race, crime and punishment, sex across the color line, and slander. Emerging stars and established scholars such as Peter Wood and Carol Berkin weave together the fascinating story of competing agendas and clashing cultures on the southern frontier. One chapter focuses on a community's resistance to a hermaphrodite, where the town court conducted a series of "examinations" to determine the individual's gender. Other pieces address topics ranging from resistance to sexual exploitation on the part of slave women to spousal murders, from interpreting women's expressions of religious ecstasy to a pastor's sermons about depraved sinners and graphic depictions of carnage, all in the name of "exposing" evil, and from a case of infanticide to the practice of state-mandated castration.

Several of the authors pay close attention to the social and personal dynamics of interracial women's networks and relationships across place and time. The Devil's Lane illuminates early forms of sexual oppression, inviting comparative questions about authority and violence, social attitudes and sexual tensions, the impact of slavery as well as the twisted course of race relations among blacks, whites, and Indians. Several scholars look particularly at the Gulf South, myopically neglected in traditional literature, and an outstanding feature of this collection.

These eighteen original essays reveal why the intersection of sex and race marks an essential point of departure for understanding southern social relations, and a turning point for the field of colonial history. The rich, varied and distinctive experiences showcased in The Devil's Lane provides an extraordinary opportunity for readers interested in women's history, African American history, southern history, and especially colonial history to explore a wide range of exciting issues.Amazon.com Review
Focusing on matters of race and sex and the intersection of the two, this collection of nearly 20 essays covers the American South for a period of about 200 years ending in 1808. The focus is scholarly, but the book is accessible to history buffs and general readers alike. (The title comes from a term used to describe land in dispute in the colonial South.) In one essay, "The Facts Speak Loudly Enough," Peter H. Woods tells the shocking story of the massacre of several dozen blacks in Charleston, South Carolina, on the eve of the American Revolution. Another, Paul Finkelman's "Crimes of Love, Misdemeanors of Passion: The Regulation of Race and Sex in the Colonial South," explores the ways in which authorities tried to proscribe miscegenation in Virginia from the 1600s on, and notes one practical reason that there has always been race mixing in America: in the 1630s, the ratio of male immigrants to female in Virginia was 6-1. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book!
Kirsten Fischer in part 10 of this book was an eye-opener when speaking about the sexual slander and racial ideology among whites in North Carolina.

A top notch collection on an important subject.
Anyone who has studied the history of slavery in the US must recognize that the issue of sex and race is a critical sub-text.Clinton and Glillespie's collection of essays provides a variety of well-thought-outperspectives on the issue.Scholars will find the work thought-provokingand a valuable addition to readings for advanced undergraduate and graduatecourses. ... Read more

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Until recently, a "womanless" American history was the norm. But in fact, without a history of women we neglect consideration of gender dynamics, sex roles, and family and sexual relations--the very fundamentals of human interaction. In Portraits of American Women, G.J. Barker-Benfield and Catherine Clinton present twenty-four short essays on American women beginning with Pocahontas and ending with Betty Friedan.

The essays here locate the histories of women and men together by period and provide a sense of their continuities through the whole gallery of the American past. The editors selected women who made "significant contributions in the public realm," be they in the areas of art, literature, political engagement, educational activities, or reform movements. Included here are portraits of such luminaries as Georgia O'Keeffe, Margaret Mead, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anne Hutchinson, Phillis Wheatley, Margaret Fuller, and Rose Schneiderman, to name a few. Each portrait is fashioned to appeal to a wide range of readers, and all include sound scholarship and accessible prose, and raise provocative issues to illuminate women's lives within a broad range of historical transformations. ... Read more

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Cutting through romantic myth, this captivating volume combines period photographs and illustrations with new documentary sources to tell the real story of Southern women during the American Civil War. 126 illustrations.Amazon.com Review
Letters, diaries, slave narratives, and southern literature retrace the steps of the women of the American South in this historical volume. Filled with photographs, Tara Revisited present the facts and fiction behind such southern icons as Scarlett O'Hara, Mrs. Butterworth, Clara Barton, and others who were plantation mistresses, slaves, city dwellers, and even soldiers. Clinton brings to life the joy and suffering of women in both black and white communities, beginning with antebellum society, continuing through the Reconstruction era, and ending with the present day. The final chapter, "The Road to Tara," discusses the Southern Belle, the Southern Mammy, and the implications of our fascination with those figures from a past which may or may not have existed only in our minds and our movies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Disappointing
I purchased this book at the Gettysburg NPS bookstore and was very anxious to begin reading it...however after only a few pages the author's bias and dislike of all things southern was glaring obvious to me.I am certainly not looking to have the past whitewashed, but I feel like the title is very misleading.After 97 pages of reading, I have gathered very little information about women and planation life.... The only recommendation I can give this book is that it is peppered with some great photographs.

not convincing
Tara Revisited is an only marginally convincing portrait of the "real" southern woman.Clinton successfully debunks the myth of the Old South, yet fails to put in its place a convincing and thoroughdiscussion of the real lives of these women.

Clinton, in refuting thepopular myth of the "southern belle," does put up her own modelfor the southern lady.But this model depends little on how these womenactually lived and what they really though; rather she consistently insistson painting women in an overly noble and (still) idealized way.

If youare looking for a good history and examination of women during the AmericanCivil War, try "Mothers of Invention" by Drew Gilpin Faust.Itis immensely more satisfying than Clinton's depiction.

Factual Alternative to a Myth
Southerners carry a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the Lost Cause, so any book which attempts to set the record straight is an exercise in masochism, certain to be fired upon by those weened on PlantationMythology.Clinton investigates the development of the "TaraMystique", that belief that plantation life consisted of happy slavesworking for the love of the masters and mistresses.She both dispels thislegend and defends the character of Southern womanhood during the Civil Warand afterwards.Those who want their ancestors to be demigods will hatethis book.Those who want to demonize Southern forebears will find it toolight.Those who are willing to confront history as a record made by humanbeings will enjoy this book and ask for more.

Disappointing, one sided, laced with Author's own prejudice
As a lover and avid reader of history I was VERY disappointed in this book.I found Ms. Clintons opinions and interpretations of the south and southern plantation era one sided, selective, and laced with her own prejudices.Yes, it was a horrible, horrible time for the blacks, whites and our country.Slavery will always beAmericas greatest shame, a flaw that most of us struggle to understand and rectify in our human frailty each day, but if Ms. Clinton is to be believed, there was but a handful of humane, caring "white" people residing in the south during this time!Which is Not true!If Ms. Clinton considers herself a true historian (which I do not) and writer of history I feel it is her duty to tell All sides honestly, with equal amounts of pros and cons, and without her own bias slants.To my fellow history buffs I can not reccoment this book and I can honestly say that I will never read another of Ms. Clintons books in the future.

A Connecticut Yankee's views on Southern Life
I picked up this book and a bookstore in Georgia, thinking it to be a historical book about the South.I was apalled by her insensitivity to the Southern plantation owner.Though there were cruel plantation owners, there were also the genuinly kind people, who cared for the slaves.My ancestors owned slaves, but the majority of them stayed with our family after the war.I wish that the author would pay more attention to the what the southerners had to go through after the war, with homes burned, and families starved, instead of calling it all "southern myth" which has be made into movies and books and over publicized with Scarlett O'Hara and Mammy to stir the hearts of America's people.For the "southern myth" is no myth at all; it is the true story of thousands of Americans who fought for what they believed in their hearts as right, the protection of their values and way of life. ... Read more

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A groundbreaking collection--featuring four new poems by major poets

A Poem of Her Own brings together notable American works that convey the powerful spirit of mothers, sisters, and daughters throughout this nation's history. Among the poets included are luminaries such as Phillis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Sylvia Plath. Also featured are previously unpublished pieces by contemporary poets Julia Alvarez, Nikki Giovanni, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Marge Piercy.

Not intended as a survey but as a celebration of uniquely female perspectives, this compilation of 25 poems addresses difficult issues such as oppression and bigotry, and celebrates themes such as the pursuit of freedom, the triumph of democracy, and the splendor of the natural world. But most importantly, all of these selections provide unforgettable insights into the singular experience of being an American woman.

An introduction by editor Catherine Clinton and biographies of the poets complete this rich, much-needed collection. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful...entertaining and scholarly
Jones writes with such leisure that I sometimes forgot that I was reading history. I wish I could thank her for writing about the women that were so critical in the shaping of our country, all women, from across the continuum of race, class, and ethnicity. This would be my first choice of textbook if I were teaching a History of Southern Women class and a great additional text for teaching History of American Women. ... Read more

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--History