The War Went on

Reviews / Votes

The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans both encapsulates and extends the recent outpouring of work on Civil War veterans. The veterans analyzed from several creative angles engage in politics, recall their prison experience, build memorial halls, and seek pensions. But they also defend the honor of their service, go to live in veterans' homes, and even seek pensions despite being deserters. This rich collection of essays offers a wide range of veterans' voices, tackles knotty questions about their experiences, and provides direction for future work. The War Went On is a valuable and timely collection, reminding us that Civil War veterans, like all veterans, were not a monolithic group. Their postwar lives were often messy and complicated, and not uniformly defined by their war experience. Readers will further gain an excellent sense of current debates over the Civil War's lasting and significant legacy. Jordan and Rothera's magnificent collection sets a new standard in Civil War studies. Concise, deeply researched, and well written, this volume captures the incredibly diverse homecomings of those who survived America's greatest cataclysm. While each essay makes an invaluable individual contribution to the field, collectively they reflect the absolute best of current scholarship on this important issue.