The Battlefield and Beyond

The Battlefield and Beyond - Cover

Essays on the American Civil War

edited by Clayton E. Jewett

In The Battlefield and Beyond leading Civil War historians explore a tragic part of our nation’s history though the lenses of race, gender, leadership, politics, and memory. The essays in this strong collection shed new light on the defining issues of the Civil War era.

Orville Vernon Burton, Leonne M. Hudson, and Daniel E. Sutherland delve into the master-slave relationship, the role of blacks in the army, and the nature of southern violence. Herman Hattaway, Paul D. Escott, and Judith F. Gentry offer innovative perspectives on the influential leadership of President Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant-General Stephen D. Lee, and General Edmund Kirby Smith. 
 
Other contributors consider politicians and the public: Michael J. Connolly and Clayton E. Jewett investigate how despotism contributed to Confederate defeat; David E. Kyvig and Alan M. Kraut examine the war’s impact on the Constitution and racial relationships with Jews; and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Kenneth Nivison, and Emory M. Thomas discuss the critical function of memory in our understanding of Lincoln’s assassination.
 
The essays in The Battlefield and Beyond consider the fundamental issue of the Confederacy’s failure and military defeat but also expose our nation’s continuing struggles with race, individual rights, terrorism, and the economy. Collectively, this distinguished group of historians reveals that 150 years after the nation’s most defining conflict its consequences still resonate.

Clayton E. Jewett is lecturer in history at Baylor University and the author or editor of Texas in the Confederacy: An Experiment in Nation Building, Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History, and Rise and Fall of the Confederacy: The Memoir of Texas Senator Williamson S. Oldham, CSA.

Praise for The Battlefield and Beyond

“The essays capture some of the pressing historiographic debates in the field....Battlefield and Beyond is a worthwhile survey of the field of Civil War history and an appropriate tribute to the wide-ranging legacy of Jon Wakelyn.”—Aaron Astor, Journal of American History

“The Battlefield and Beyond serves as a compelling assortment of essays that demonstrates the great work that has been done by and what work still remains for Civil War historians in the twenty-first century. Hopefully, historians can take this book as a call to further explore the deeper nuances of America’s seminal conflict.”—David K. Thomson, North Carolina Historical Review

“Informative and well-constructed, this new book will enlighten anyone interested in the varied experiences of southern history, which surely is a fitting tribute to one of the great minds in southern history.”—Civil War History

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