Disability, the Body, and Radical Intellectuals in the Literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction
Published on 4. July 2024
Book
Hardback
270 pages
978-1-009-44269-5 (ISBN)
Description
During the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of men were injured, and underwent amputation of hands, feet, limbs, fingers, and toes. As the war drew to a close, their disabled bodies came to represent the future of a nation that had been torn apart, and how it would be put back together again. In her authoritative and engagingly written new book, Sarah Chinn claims that amputation spoke both corporeally and metaphorically to radical white writers, ministers, and politicians about the need to attend to the losses of the Civil War by undertaking a real and actual Reconstruction that would make African Americans not just legal citizens but actual citizens of the United States. She traces this history, reviving little-known figures in the struggle for Black equality, and in so doing connecting the racial politics of 150 years ago with contemporary debates about justice and equity.
Reviews / Votes
'Juxtaposing detailed accounts of literary representations with "true stories" from soldiers who lost limbs, this compelling book presents valuable critical and historical perspectives on how amputation served as a visible reminder of loss during and after the Civil War.' Shirley Samuels, Cornell University 'From beginning to end, the book is written with brio and authority. It has powerful new things to say about the visual and literary culture of Reconstruction... Chinn writes an engaging and beautiful prose informed by her wide reading in the scholarship of Reconstruction. She knows the history and the literature of the period. She also knows a good deal about photography and other forms of visual representation. The book is quite moving, especially given its focus on scarred and marred bodies.' Robert S. Levine, University of Maryland 'Thought-provokingly written and well researched, this book offers more insights to consider to the growing historiography of Civil War disability.' Tim Talbott, Emerging Civil War blogMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
587 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-44269-5 (9781009442695)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Sarah E. Chinn
Disability, the Body, and Radical Intellectuals in the Literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction
Book
10/2025
Cambridge University Press
€47.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Sarah E. Chinn is Professor of English at Hunter College, CUNY. She is the author of three other books: Technology and the Logic of American Racism: A Cultural History of the Body as Evidence (2000), The Invention of Modern Adolescence: The Children of Immigrants in Turn-of-the-Century America (2007), and Spectacular Men: Race, Gender, and Nation on the Early American Stage (2017), which won the 2017 George Freedley Memorial Award for an exemplary work in the field of live theatre or performance from the American Theatre Library Association.
Content
Introduction: a new kind of nation: Amputation, reconstruction, and the promise of black citizenship; 1. Giving up the ghost: the dead child vs. the amputated limb; 2. 'Strewn promiscuously about': limbs and what happens to them; 3. 1860 or 1865? Amending the national body; 4. 'I don't care a rag for the Union as it was': amputation, the past, and the work of the Freedmen's Bureau; 5. Shaking hands: manual politics and the end of reconstruction; Conclusion: Eloquent Emptiness.