Armies of Deliverance

Reviews / Votes

The Civil War, as a topic of study, is boundless. And Armies of Deliverance is undoubtedly the work for our times. * Susan-Mary Grant, American Nineteenth Century History Review * Varon has successfully written an engaging and thought-provoking new history of the Civil War. Scholars seeking to challenge or expand our understanding of Northern war motivations will be required to engage with Varon's deliverance argument, as she deftly demonstrates its importance to the rhetoric of unconditional unionism. * Daniel Farrell, Economic History.net * Varon embeds her argument in a lucid, informative synthetic overview of most of the war's major military, social, and political developments ... she has made an important contribution to our understanding of how Northerners and Unionists across the land felt, thought, and remained (mostly) motivated during this titanic struggle, and why it matters that they did. * Anne Brinton, H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online * The book is well written and salted with political, cultural, and racial anecdotes, mostly from newspaper accounts and editorials; these add cultural richness ... Varon skillfully clarifies the popular evolution of moral purpose in Union war aims. * Cathal J. Nolan, Michigan War Studies Review * Do you enjoy excellent prose and the bringing together of military, social, and cultural history? If so, you will enjoy Elizabeth R. Varon's Armies of Deliverance. Varon...has written a riveting Civil War narrative that focuses on Northern soldiers' and civilians' understanding of the war's aims....[It] includes discussions of how Southerners supporting the Confederacy also interpreted the politics of deliverance, but the book's focus on Northerners is where it really breaks new ground. * Adam H. Domby, Journal of American History * Elizabeth Varon has served up a fresh and convincing interpretation of Northern policy and goals in the Civil War. She portrays how an initial purpose to deliver the presumed legions of white Unionists in the South from suppression by Confederate domination evolved into a crusade to liberate whites and blacks alike from the iron grip of the slave power and slavery. This book offers a new perspective on the searing conflict of 1861-1865 that continues to provoke controversy today. * James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era * Drawing on her mastery of the Civil War era, Elizabeth Varon delivers a sweeping and bold synthesis that seamlessly blends the military, political, cultural, racial, and religious currents of the tragic conflict. Her deft use of 'deliverance' as a motif for understanding the wartime motivations of both nations provides an astute perspective on this endlessly fascinating period in United States history. * Joan Waugh, co-author of The American War: A History of the Civil War Era * After reading about that conflict [the Civil War], I've had another surprise: Despite everything that has been written about it, there is always something new and interesting to say about the war and what it means. This thought was inspired by Armies of Deliverance. This impressive work is explicitly a political study of the war rather than a military one. As such, it makes a good companion volume to James McPherson's classic Battle Cry of Freedom. * Thomas Ricks, New York Times Book Review * In this sweeping, comprehensive, and informed analysis of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Varon suggests new ways of interpreting old issues and questions. Northerners, she tells us, came to see the war in almost biblical terms; delivering white Southerners from an ill-fated course of secession and slaves from bondage. In white Southerners' rejection of these lofty Northern objectives is to be found the failure of Reconstruction. * Richard Blackett, author of The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the Politics of Slavery * Witnessing intense debates over the meaning of Confederate monuments, many twenty-first-century Americans assume that Lost Cause southerners have long had the upper hand in the battle over Civil War memory. In her well-crafted and perceptive narrative, Elizabeth Varon offers a necessary corrective to that view. It was the rhetoric of deliverance, she contends, that not only won the hearts and minds of Union soldiers and shaped Lincoln's policies, but also, in the end, made military victory possible. * Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America * A fresh interpretation of the Civil War that illuminates why Americans took up arms against each other. An accessible work of scholarship that will be of great interest to students of Civil War history. * Kirkus Reviews * Elizabeth R. Varon's highly original and sweeping new study, Armies of Deliverance, [is] one of the few histories of the war since James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom (1988) that deserve to be ranked as essential reading. Had Ms. Varon devoted a smaller book to her case, she would undoubtedly have produced a valuable academic resource. But she has bravely aimed for something bigger, not only inviting us to reconsider the motivation but providing a thorough, highly readable history of the war itself. * The Wall Street Journal * Armies of Deliverance offers a fresh, innovative, and quite readable account of the American Civil War. By recasting the conflict as a 'war of liberation,' Varon presents new insights along with revealing evidence (especially from more moderate voices) that make this an important book for historians as well as a most enlightening one for general readers. Students and veteran scholars alike will learn a great deal from this fine book. * George C. Rable, author of Damn Yankees! Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South * Thought-provoking Varon paints a portrait of the Civil War-era South that is counterintuitive; it's not a traditional story of North versus South but rather a story of North and South versus the Confederacy. Varon creates thrilling set pieces of all the familiar battles and controversies, and she does a particularly shrewd and sensitive job of parsing the significance of both the Emancipation Proclamation and the 1864 election. * Steven Donoghue, Christian Science Monitor * For teachers reluctant to assign a single text because students protest the anodyne feel of textbooks, the strength of Varon's argument makes this book a welcome choice....Her narrative carries the story with remarkable effectiveness and concision. She captures the contingency of battles, the unpredictability of commanders, and the fickleness of public opinion. As befits a history of the Civil War, military history plays a key role. Her emphasis on campaign-level movement, with occasional detours through the tactics of major encounters, ensures that readers understand the outcomes. * Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Journal of the Civil War Era *