Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War, by Steven E. Wood-worth

Abstract

Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War, by Steven E. Woodworth. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 2000. xx, 220 pp. $45.00 U.S. Steven E. Woodworth notes that concept of Culture Wars so aptly used by presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan at 1992 Republican National Convention, was neither new nor unique 1990s. According Woodworth, profoundly deep divisions that drive people to drastic action and fundamental change are always at least partly (p. xi). Citing American Civil War as one prominent example, Woodworth proposes help us understand cultural currents that caused and shaped that conflict through writings of actual participants and eye-witnesses. Following a three-page preface outlining his intent and methodology, Woodworth divides his book into three sections. Part I includes Key Events ... 1860-1865, an Overview chapter of war, and a chapter outlining Northern and Southern Ways of Life over two centuries. Part II contains four chapters of documents covering war years. A concluding part III considers Ideas Exploration, identifying links between various themes and specific documents, inferring its use discussion or research papers. The organization and approach thus suggests a book aimed at a student and non-specialist audience. The price ($45.00 U.S.) and book's structure may limit those uses. The documents include some thirty excerpts from letters, diaries and memoirs show mundane daily experiences of ordinary people (soldiers, nurses, teachers, a plantation mistress, farmers) both sides of conflict. Woodworth's sources are often imaginative. Wartime Southern culture is shown by Mary Todd Lincoln's half-sister in Kentucky, a family of Arkansas Unionists, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Georgian cousin, Braxton Bragg's wife, and a Union officer's wife in Nashville. More traditional civilian and soldier correspondence discuss Northern rural and small town communities with Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana heavily represented. Larger cities and eastern seaboard receive proportionately less attention. This fair representation is intended demonstrate intersection of military and civilian life and offer modern readers a chance know those who participated in war on a personal basis. Woodworth admits limits of this approach; illiterate persons, which includes most slaves are not included for obvious reasons and can only be represented in the accounts of others (p. xii). Surprisingly a book apparently aimed at students, he never explains why such non-traditional sources as slave narratives, songs, and oral tradition are excluded. …