Civil War Boston: home front and battlefield

Abstract

Civil War Boston: Home Front and Battlefield. By Thomas H. O'Connor. (Northeastern University Press, 1997) $26.95 cloth In recent years, the continuing flood of books on the Civil War has overflowed the banks of traditional military history and spread into fields previously cultivated by social historians. This expanded interest coincides with the emphasis of current scholarship on previously neglected population groups. Although the sound of guns and the rumble of armies in motion is always audible in the background, this study concerns itself with Home Front Boston, describing how battlefield events affected civilians -- changed their lives, disrupted their homes, altered their work habits, reshaped their political allegiances, transformed their ideas.... Any city could profitably be studied in this way, but Boston is a particularly compelling subject. For most Americans, then and now, Boston and Charleston, South Carolina, represented opposite poles, the extreme expression of the differences that led to the breakup of the United States. It would be hard to think of anyone better suited to conduct such an examination than Thomas H. O'Connor, emeritus professor of history at Boston College and author of numerous books on Boston's history. This background enables him to weave details of the newspaper reports on which he relies heavily into the larger tapestry of Boston life. O'Connor declares his intention to organize the study around four identifiable groups who were significant in the city's life: the business community, Irish Catholics, African-Americans, and women. To some degree, this is a welcome shift from the more customary emphasis on intellectuals and abolitionists, though those elements are certainly not ignored. O'Connor's adherence to this structure is strongest in the opening and closing chapters. Between, it sometimes seems that he has to remind himself to refocus, while the image blurs to a more conventional look at public opinion and political developments. With his long immersion in Boston history, O'Connor is able to sketch his subject with sure, effective strokes, often illustrated by a striking anecdote. It is startling, for example, to be reminded, or informed, of how Jefferson Davis was lionized during a visit to the city in late 1858. O'Connor also succeeds in depicting the relationship among his selected groups, stressing the intense animosity of the Irish toward African-Americans, which persisted after the war ended. Southern perceptions to the contrary, O'Connor finds considerable personal sympathy for the South among Boston's prewar business community; one of the book's strengths is its description of how this attitude hardened into resolute determination to preserve the Union and free the slaves. …