A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction

A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction addresses the key topics and themes of the Civil War era, with 23 original essays by top scholars in the field.

• An authoritative volume that surveys the history and historiography of the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction
• Analyzes the major sources and the most influential books and articles in the field
• Includes discussions on scholarly advances in U.S. Civil War history.

Notes on the contributors vii

Introduction: A Civil War in the Age of Capital 1
Lacy K. Ford

Part I: Sectional Conflict and the Coming of the Civil War

1 Slavery and the Union, 1789–1833 25
Douglas R. Egerton

2 The Market Revolution 41
John Larson

3 Slavery and the Old South 60
Larry Hudson

4 Planters, Plain Folk, and Poor Whites in the Old South 75
Charles C. Bolton

5 Humanitarian Reform and Antislavery 94
James B. Stewart

6 Women in the Antebellum North 112
Teresa Murphy

7 Women in the Old South 128
Michele Gillespie

8 The Road to Secession 152
Michael Morrison

9 The Republican Triumph 167
John Ashworth

10 And the War Came 183
Daniel Crofts

Part II: The Civil War and American Society

11 Saving the Union 203
Kevin Gannon

12 Civil War Military Campaigns: The Union 223
Carol Reardon

13 Civil War Military Campaigns: The Confederacy 239
Steven Woodworth

14 The Confederate Home Front 258
Mary DeCredico

15 Emancipation 277
Joseph P. Reidy

Part III: Reconstruction and the New Nation

16 Defining Reconstruction 299
O. Vernon Burton, David Herr, and Matthew Cheney

17 The Politics of Reconstruction 323
Michael Perman

18 The Economics of Reconstruction 342
Peter A. Coclanis and Scott Marler

19 Southern Labor and Reconstruction 366
R. Tracy McKenzie

20 Northern Women during the Age of Emancipation 386
Nina Silber

21 Southern Women during the Age of Emancipation 403
Jeannie Whayne

22 The Legacy of Confederate Defeat 423
Gaines M. Foster

23 Reconstruction and the Nation 447
Heather Richardson

Bibliography 468

Index 504

" A recent and welcome addition to the Blackwell Companions to American History series. . . . The choice of Lacy Ford to edit this volume was an excellent one. Ford has assembled a stellar team of scholars . . . Most of the essays are certain to become essential reading for specialists but are also accessible to nonspecialists . . . . [T]his volume belongs on the 'must-read' shelf of scholars of the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as those of nineteenth-century southern and U.S. history." Journal of Southern History Lacy Ford is Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. He is the recipient of many awards in American and Southern history including the 1999 NEH Fellowship Award and the Francis B. Simkins prize for his book Origins of Southern Radicalism (1988). A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction is an extraordinary collection of 23 essays addressing the key topics and themes of the most divisive era in United States history. These original essays by top scholars in the field are organized chronologically into three parts: “Sectional Conflict and the Coming of the Civil War,” “The Civil War and American Society,” and “Reconstruction and the New Nation.” Each essay is an interpretive summary of the key literature in the field, and places the topic in historical context. Contributors include bibliographies and suggest future directions of the historiography. This volume provides students, scholars, and informed general readers of Civil War and Reconstruction history with a valuable guide to their research and teaching.