This War Ain't Over
Fighting the Civil War in New Deal America
Published on 1. August 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-4696-6157-5 (ISBN)
Description
The New Deal era witnessed a surprising surge in popular engagement with the history and memory of the Civil War era. From the omnipresent book and film Gone with the Wind and the scores of popular theater productions to Aaron Copeland's "A Lincoln Portrait," it was hard to miss America's fascination with the war in the 1930s and 1940s. Nina Silber deftly examines the often conflicting and politically contentious ways in which Americans remembered the Civil War era during the years of the Depression, the New Deal, and World War II. In doing so, she reveals how the debates and events of that earlier period resonated so profoundly with New Deal rhetoric about state power, emerging civil rights activism, labor organizing and trade unionism, and popular culture in wartime.
At the heart of this book is an examination of how historical memory offers people a means of understanding and defining themselves in the present. Silber reveals how, during a moment of enormous national turmoil, the events and personages of the Civil War provided a framework for reassessing national identity, class conflict, and racial and ethnic division. The New Deal era may have been the first time Civil War memory loomed so large for the nation as a whole, but, as the present moment suggests, it was hardly the last.
At the heart of this book is an examination of how historical memory offers people a means of understanding and defining themselves in the present. Silber reveals how, during a moment of enormous national turmoil, the events and personages of the Civil War provided a framework for reassessing national identity, class conflict, and racial and ethnic division. The New Deal era may have been the first time Civil War memory loomed so large for the nation as a whole, but, as the present moment suggests, it was hardly the last.
Reviews / Votes
In this brisk, engagingly written book, Silber charts the way that disparate Americans used the Civil War to frame important engagements with contemporary issues, especially with federal power, during the depression. Silber's chapters include analyses of artists, writers, filmmakers, government officials, monument builders, trade unionists, and scores of others, both black and white."- The Annals of Iowa"A fascinating exploration of 'how Americans used a troubled past,' not just the Civil War but also slavery and Reconstruction, 'to navigate a complicated present," the Great Depression and World War II. . . . With thoughtful appreciation of conflicting views . . . It proves particularly wise in stressing how contemporary concerns shape historical memory more than historical memory shapes contemporary behavior."- Journal of the Civil War Era
"Nina Silber has made an impressive contribution to the essential historical understanding of how the past influences the present and how the memory of past events, specifically the Civil War, resonated in New Deal America."- Maryland Historical Magazine
"Silber moves seamlessly from political memory to cultural memory, and the cultural memory she discusses spans a wide gamut of film and literature. . . . A necessary addition to the historiographies of both the Great Depression and memory writ large."- Journal of Southern History
"An alluring read that effectively illuminates the New Deal era as crossroads of popular Civil War interpretation. Silber demonstrates the relationship between collective memory and social power. Federal administrators, National Park supervisors, propagandists, reactionaries, activists, and filmmakers navigated a dynamic social, cultural, and economic landscape in order to construct a "useable past" to make sense of or effect change in the present."- Journal of Arizona History
"Offers a stimulating look into Civil War memory's evolution and insight into the reverberations that continue to the present."- H-Net Reviews
"Silber's account of how, as Faulkner said, the past isn't even past, is accessible and well written. Anyone interested in the uses of memory by Americans to serve multiple and often contradictory causes will benefit from This War Ain't Over."- The Journal of Southern Religion
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
15 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
432 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4696-6157-5 (9781469661575)
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
E-Book
11/2018
The University of North Carolina Press
€19.49
Available for download
Person
Nina Silber is professor of history at Boston University and author of The Romance of Reunion: Northerners and the South, 1865-1900.