The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction
Mark E. Neely(Author)
Harvard University Press
Published on 1. November 2007
Book
Hardback
270 pages
978-0-674-02658-2 (ISBN)
Description
The Civil War is often portrayed as the most brutal war in America's history, a premonition of 20th-century slaughter and carnage. In challenging this view, Mark E. Neely, Jr., considers the war's destructiveness in a comparative context, revealing the sense of limits that guided the conduct of American soldiers and statesmen.Neely begins by contrasting Civil War behaviour with U.S. soldiers' experiences in the Mexican War of 1846. He examines Price's Raid in Missouri for evidence of deterioration in the restraints imposed by the customs of war; and in a brilliant analysis of Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign, he shows that the actions of U.S. cavalrymen were selective and controlled. The Mexican war of the 1860s between French imperial forces and republicans provided a new yardstick for brutality: Emperor Maximilian's infamous Black Decree threatened captured enemies with execution. Civil War battles, however, paled in comparison with the unrestrained warfare waged against the Plains Indians. Racial beliefs, Neely shows, were a major determinant of wartime behaviour.Destructive rhetoric was rampant in the congressional debate over the resolution to avenge the treatment of Union captives at Andersonville by deliberately starving and freezing to death Confederate prisoners of war.
Nevertheless, to gauge the events of the war by the ferocity of its language of political hatred is a mistake, Neely argues. The modern overemphasis on violence in Civil War literature has led many scholars to go too far in drawing close analogies with the 20th century's "total war" and the grim guerrilla struggles of Vietnam.
Nevertheless, to gauge the events of the war by the ferocity of its language of political hatred is a mistake, Neely argues. The modern overemphasis on violence in Civil War literature has led many scholars to go too far in drawing close analogies with the 20th century's "total war" and the grim guerrilla struggles of Vietnam.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
12 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 153 mm
Weight
466 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-02658-2 (9780674026582)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Mark E. Neely Jr.
The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction
E-Book
07/2009
Harvard University Press
€71.99
Available for download
Person
Mark E. Neely, Jr., is McCabe-Greer Professor of the History of the Civil War Era, Pennsylvania State University.