post-Civil War Research Articles

Race, caste and colonialism

This article addresses Oliver Cromwell Cox’s criticisms of the application of the concept of caste to understand race relations in the southern states of the Unite States. It proposes that there are deep similarities in the experiences of Dalits in India and Blacks in the United States, but argues that these derive from the modern construction of caste and race in the conjunction of colonialism and capitalism. In each case, the problems do not derive from the resilience of ‘pre-modern’ social structures, but from modern structures of colonialism that continue in the post-civil war United States and post-independence India. They are problems of democracy, not problems to be solved by the application of democratic values.

A Timeline of Journalistic Influence of Writing on the Gilded Age in American Literature

The themes found in the writings by authors during the Gilded Age are still prevalent in writings of the twenty-first century. The Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period of economic boom after the American Civil War at the turn of the century, influenced communication to readers by using the ethos unearthed by writers who were opposed to a particular politician and their policies. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. What looked like a golden time was an era of great growing pains in America between the industrial worker and the wealthy business owner. What the Gilded Age symbolized in both life and writing has become a model of writing that extended to current literature. American writers contributed to a great body of literature that flourished during the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. Literature was used as a social revolt that violated the growing power of business and growing government corruption that outlined the utopias of the inefficiency of a capitalistic system. Within genres of writing such as Poetry, the later nineteenth century, and early years of the twentieth century were a poor period for American poetry providing themes of distress, doubts, and fears about American life. Within the genres of writing, newspaper writing played a crucial role in exposing scandals, the pathos of the American Dream, and the logos or persuasion by using the trials of society. Writing was a powerful communication tool during the Gilded Age that allowed writers to target events during this era. Newspaper writing was important to communicating prominent issues to the public, as it upheld ideals to question government and keep it accountable. However, the Gilded Age writings helped to permanently etch in the minds of readers the importance of themes that were prevalent post-Civil War that impacted the writing and writers of American Literature.

The Indian, Chinese, and Mormon Questions

This article examines how the cultural concept of the American home shaped Reconstruction politics in the American West. In a post-Civil War era in which Republicans sought a national culture and homogenous citizenry, ideas about what made a proper home became a powerful way to measure the potential inclusion of western minority groups. Three “questions”—the Indian, Chinese, and Mormon Questions—became some of the most pressing and passionately debated political controversies of the period. Historians have tended to treat these questions separately, but American congressmen, policy makers, and reformers discussed the three groups in remarkably similar ways. Ultimately, these Americans asked a single question—who had the right to possess homes and, by extension, American citizenship. These commentators, the article argues, saw Native peoples, Chinese immigrants, and Mormons as unfit for U.S. citizenship for three main reasons: their failure to create proper homes, their threat to white homes, and their occupation of land that could otherwise be settled with white homes and families. When examined together, the western questions reveal how the American home, born in an emancipatory moment, became a blunt and violent tool of Reconstruction in the West.

Resilience, remoteness and war shape the land cover dynamics in one of the world's largest miombo woodlands

The highlands of southeast Angola are one of the world's largest intact formations of miombo woodland. Recent interest from conservation groups is increasing the possibility of a new protected area in this conflict-afflicted, remote region, contributing to the “30 × 30” target of the Global Biodiversity Framework. With the potential for a new protected area, it is important to quantify the extent and change of natural and anthropogenic land covers in the region, not least because of the close dependence of livelihoods on natural resources in the miombo. We developed a 1990–2020 land cover time series, analysing deforestation, canopy opening, canopy closure, and vegetation regrowth after disturbance. Regional woodland extent has remained roughly constant despite frequent transitions between dense and open woodlands. Canopy opening peaked post-civil war, potentially related to the resettlement of displaced people. Over 30 years, 61 % ± 2 % of canopy opening was offset by subsequent canopy closure, which peaked a decade after the war ended, indicating the resilience of miombo systems. A woodland resource-use frontier, consisting of deforestation and canopy opening, is evident in the north-west of the area, likely driven by urban demand for agricultural products, charcoal, timber and other wood-derived goods. A distinct “core” of dynamic woodland occupies 52 % of the study region, where there is no evidence that shifting cultivation and local livelihoods are a net cause of land cover change. We do not find evidence for extensive net woody encroachment, only 2 % of the study region is being encroached by woody vegetation. This canopy closure is associated with remoteness from anthropogenic pressures and biophysical drivers that facilitate woody vegetation growth. Policymakers and conservation managers can use these data to aid in locating and prioritising interventions to sustainably produce agricultural and wood fuel products to meet increasing urban demand. Additionally, supporting conditions for maintaining both biophysical processes and livelihoods in remote areas is crucial to achieving 30 × 30 equitably.

‘Appropriated to her own use and benefit’: women, larceny, and race in post-Civil War South Carolina

ABSTRACT This article examines Black and White women’s trials for larceny in South Carolina between 1865 and 1900. County-level court records demonstrate that most women defendants stood accused of appropriating food, clothing, or household items from their workplaces. Larceny cases provide important insights into poor and working-class women’s lives, survival strategies, and desires, revealing commonalities across the colour line of the postbellum U.S. South. However, White southerners racialised larceny in ways which meant African American women were more likely to be accused and convicted of theft. The essay also explores the myriad ways in which women strategically fought for acquittal.

Racial and geographic disparities in neonatal brain care

In this review, we explore race-based disparities in neonatology and their impact on brain injury and neurodevelopmental outcomes. We discuss the historical context of healthcare discrimination, focusing on the post-Civil War era and the segregation of healthcare facilities. We highlight the increasing disparity in infant mortality rates between Black and White infants, with premature birth being a major contributing factor, and emphasize the role of prenatal factors such as metabolic syndrome and toxic stress in affecting neonatal health. Furthermore, we examine the geographic and historical aspects of racial disparities, including the consequences of redlining and limited access to healthcare facilities or nutritious food options in Black communities. Finally, we delve into the higher incidence of brain injuries in Black neonates, as well as disparities in adverse neurodevelopmental outcome. This evidence underscores the need for comprehensive efforts to address systemic racism and provide equitable access to healthcare resources.

Mechanisms for Socio-Political Cohesion and National Development in Post-Civil War Nigeria

The focus of this study is on Nigeria's post-civil war socio-political cohesion status at the political, economic, and social levels. It examines what the Nigerian government has done to enhance the necessary blending of political forces and ideologies of the greatest number of citizens, and how far they have gone in stabilizing the country in the 21st century. The study adopts the qualitative descriptive historical research method using the primary and secondary sources of data collection to arrive at its findings. It has also adopted the same descriptive and historical form in the presentation of the facts from oral interviews, journal articles, books and other secondary sources that have been consulted. The study ended with a short conclusion that leads the reader to recommendations on how the Nigerian state can achieve balance in its match to an enduring socio-political cohesion for national development.

Echoes of Conflict: Exploring the Parallels Between The Red Badge of Courage and the Socioeconomic Dynamics of Post-Civil War America

This article is an attempt to analyze The Red Badge of Courage as a socio-political allegory of the period in which it was written. Two facts cannot be ignored when characterizing post-Civil War America: one of them is the rise of industrial production with the support of scientific developments and subsequent economic expansion. The other is the increasing migration due to the economic destruction in the South and higher standards of living promised by the industrial cities of the North. In this period, changes in production techniques created an advantage in favor of employers in wage competition. Therefore, factory owners began to prefer unskilled migrant workers instead of skilled workers and this also increased the intensity of urbanization. While rapid population growth turned the cities into industrial jungles, life for the rural migrant workers, who were destitute of supportive social networks, was no different than a battlefield of problems. It was at such a time that the novel was written, and the 304th infantry regiment, made up of young and inexperienced soldiers in the story, is in many ways reminiscent of young industrial workers.

Gender and Anticommunism in Children’s Social Protection in Postwar Greece

The article analyses the welfare activities provided by the Greek royal foundations in the period from their establishment in 1947 until 1968, focusing on their interventions concerning children and youth and their evolution over time. Placing the royal foundations’ activities in the Cold War and post-Civil War context, it argues that the intertwined state, parastatal and private initiatives, among which they had a hegemonic role, constituted the idiosyncratic Greek welfare state of the period, whose workings can be better grasped through the perspective of the mixed economy of welfare. Based on archival research, it highlights the gendered character of this specific version of welfare state-cum-mixed economy of welfare, and show that it was highly conservative, patriarchal and normative, based on ideological, political, class and gender exclusions. It depended on gendered massive voluntary action, especially women’s voluntary or low-paid work and elite women’s empowering activities.

‘Law and (dis)Order’: security rhetoric in the Irish Free State, 1922–1937

ABSTRACT This article examines the use of ‘law and order’ rhetoric by governing parties in the Irish Free State. In the post-Civil War period, Cumann na nGaedheal governments devised and implemented a series of public safety measures to combat real or perceived security threats, accompanying each with robust and repeated justificatory rhetoric. As this article illustrates, such rhetoric was also utilised as a means by which to burnish Cumann na nGaedheal’s image as the protectors of ‘stability’, and to cast doubt on the commitment of political opponents to the maintenance of order should they ever achieve power. In addition, the article counters the often implied view that whereas Cumann na nGaedheal (and later Fine Gael) embraced a reputation as the party of ‘law-and-order’, Fianna Fáil eschewed such nomenclature. Rather, it shall be demonstrated that despite variations in tone, once in power, Fianna Fáil adopted a broadly similar approach to the utilisation of ‘law-and-order’ rhetoric.

Moving Water

Climate change-induced megadrought and rapid urbanization are forcing western agriculture into retreat as water supplies diminish and heat and drought ravage crops and livestock. At the same time, the megadrought is imposing deep ecological harm on riparian areas, fish species, and soil and increasing the concentration of pollutants in dwindling waterways. These developments raise the question of how to use the water rights left behind as western irrigated agriculture in-evitably shrinks. We argue that federal purchase of some of these rights could create a pool of water available for instream flows (also termed environmental flows) to preserve waterways and aquatic eco-systems. We propose that the federal government acquire some west-ern water rights from agricultural holders, just as it has acquired homes in residential “managed retreat” programs, and dedicate those rights to instream flows. This proposal is novel in agricultural policy, which has stubbornly subsidized agriculture in place, and in the schol-arship on government managed retreat from climate change, which has focused on retreating people and land, not rights in natural re-sources. Federal government managed retreat of western water rights reasserts a federal role in western water allocation, a feature we con-tend accords with current needs as well as history. The allocation of western water and the system of state and private water ownership are largely the result of the post-Civil War response to illegal gold and silver mining thought necessary to encourage western settlement. These policies no longer respond to the modern urbanized West and its present environmental challenges. Drought retreat presents an oppor-tunity for the federal government to move toward a more balanced al-location of western water and create durable environmental benefits.

Post-Civil War modernity and the nurse training movement: The “Experiment” of the Boston Training School for Nurses

Background/PurposeThis paper describes the origins of the Boston Training School for Nurses (1873), later named the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing, and the role played by a Boston civic group, the Woman’s Education Association, in its founding. MethodsSocial and political forces in the post-Civil War modern era and the challenges the founders encountered in establishing and managing a nursing school are delineated. DiscussionThemes that highlight the significance of the Boston Training School’s creation relative to the nurse training movement in America are identified. ConclusionThe long-term implications of the initial agreement for a 1-year experiment to train nurses in a formal educational setting are discussed.

The Evolution of Black-White Differences in Occupational Mobility Across Post-Civil War America

The Evolution of Black-White Differences in Occupational Mobility Across Post-Civil War America

Twenty - day Border Conflict in the No Man's Land

Due to the civil war in Syria, many Syrians have fled conflict areas in search of safety in other countries, resulting in a severe migratory problem. The situation in Syria grew increasingly complicated post-civil war due to the involvement of global powers and radical Islamist factions. In a significant incident, forces of the Assad regime launched an attack on Turkish soldiers in Idlib, resulting in the death of nine Turkish military personnel on February 27, 2020. The following day, Turkey announced its decision to open its borders to refugees heading to Europe, reversing its previous policy of border closure since 2016. This move is interpreted as Turkey's strategy to increase pressure on NATO and the European Union regarding the situation in Iblid and the demand for a no-fly zone. This paper focuses on analyzing the repercussions of the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan and its implementation, the escalation of tensions leading to the opening of the Turkish border, and the potential use of Syrian refugees as pawns in a political standoff.

The Evolution of Black-White Differences in Occupational Mobility Across Post-Civil War America

The Evolution of Black-White Differences in Occupational Mobility Across Post-Civil War America

The story of the Umayyad Caliph

This article presents an in-depth analysis of the history of the founding of the Umayyad dynasty in 661 AD, with a focus on the post-civil war context in the Muslim community. The appointment of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan as the first Caliph was the starting point for the shift in power from Khulafaur Rasyidin to the Umayyad family-based dynasty. This aspect of history is explored by paying attention to the key events that shaped this dynasty. The analysis in the journal describes the period of glory and success of the Umayyads under the reign of Caliph Abdul Malik and Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik. The factors that contributed to this success, such as infrastructure development, economic progress, and political stability, are analyzed in detail. The construction of landmarks such as the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is also a focus in exploring the architectural and cultural achievements of that time. and explore the factors that led to dramatic changes in political and social structures. The analysis involves authoritarian rule, popular resistance, and internal conflict which reached its peak with the Karbala Massacre in 680 AD. An in-depth understanding of these tensions and changes is the core of this subchapter. This paper makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the history of the Umayyad dynasty, presenting a comprehensive view of the events and dynamics that shaped and ended their reign.

Parallels of Inequity: Analyzing Systemic Discrimination in Virginia Woolf’s Work and Contemporary Racial Disparities in America

This paper explores the enduring impacts of systemic discrimination, drawing parallels between Virginia Woolf’s portrayal of sexism and the pervasive racism affecting African American communities in the United States. Despite the emancipation of slaves and the awarding of citizenship to African Americans post-Civil War, institutionalized racism through Jim Crow laws has perpetuated significant socioeconomic barriers. This discrimination parallels Woolf’s analysis of sexism in "A Room of One’s Own," where she asserts that financial and educational exclusion hinders women’s intellectual and creative potential. Woolf’s critique of the systemic impoverishment of women is mirrored in the racial wealth gap experienced by African Americans, which severely limits their access to higher education and economic advancement. Historical and contemporary examples illustrate how entrenched biases in policy and society maintain these disparities. The paper argues for addressing the root causes of these inequities by ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities, akin to Woolf’s metaphorical "room of one’s own," to enable true socioeconomic progress for African Americans.

Analyzing the Role of Caddy's Absence in The Sound and the Fury Based on Textual Close Reading and Corpus Analysis

The Sound and the Fury is a masterpiece of American writer Faulkner's novels, and it is also an outstanding achievement of the writer's exploration of stream-of-consciousness narrative. The novel set in the post-Civil War American South, depicts the decline of a big family and old society orders. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the symbolic meaning of Caddy's "absence" in the narrative through close reading of the text, psychoanalysis and corpus searching methods, so as to look into the deeper meaning of the text. By analyzing Caddy's image from various angles, the paper finally concludes that Caddy's absence is not only a symbol of the era of decline, rupture and uncertainty, but also a means to strengthen the interactivity and extensibility of the text, as well as implying the author's understanding and awareness of women. By excluding Caddy from the text, the novel itself becomes an interpretation of Caddy.

Na Today?

Abstract The Lekki Tollgate massacre, which was part of the brutal tactics used to put down the #EndSARS protests, underscored the incorrigibly violent nature of the Nigerian state. It also ruptured the sense of linear progressive time which governs the hegemonic conception of history and memory in Nigeria—for instance, time as post-civil war, post-dictatorship, etc. The boundary of this idea of a nation on a progressive march, made up of people healed of all traumas, and cured of their historical scars is fiercely and violently policed. A case in point is the fervour with which Biafra as a form of collective memory is being resisted and silenced. However, the murderous incident at the tollgate brought to the fore the fact that each violent moment in Nigeria’s turbulent history has created a fractured sense of history for many victims, and consequently hampered the possibility of forging a settled sense of belonging and national unity. One site where this sense of history as violently fractured has been adequately imagined is the creative arts, especially poetry. Poems have archived, mediated, and remediated memories of violence that are mostly excised from official history. Thus, in this article I read selected poems from Soro Soke, a poetry collection curated by Brittle Paper in collaboration with James Yeku and Jumoke Verissimo. My aim is to examine how the poetic responses to the Lekki massacre generate alternative, unvarnished historiographies that call attention to the haunting and brooding presence of Nigeria’s brutal past in the present. I am also interested in the ways in which the selected works act as archives of violent memories and how they seek to recover the humanity of those killed by naming them and grieving their loss.

The "Colored American Asiatic Traveler": Peter K. L. Cole and American Empire in Japan

Abstract: This article examines African Americans' participation in US empire-building in the nineteenth-century Pacific World. It uses the life story of Peter K. L. Cole, a Black world traveler and a resident of Yokohama, Japan, to explore how notions of race, empire, modernity, and citizenship circulated around the Pacific Ocean from the 1850s to the 1870s. Cole deployed the intertwined discourses of Black settler colonialism and Black orientalism to stake claims to African American equality in the post-Civil War United States. His efforts to build equal citizenship on the basis of Black men's service to American empire abroad gained little traction as the white supremacist logics of the US settler state excluded Black people from national belonging and erased their participation in imperial expansion.