| Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America Contributor(s): Brown, Thomas J. (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1469653737 ISBN-13: 9781469653730 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $98.01 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) - History | Military - General |
| Dewey: 973.76 |
| LCCN: 2019020029 |
| Series: Civil War America |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.68 lbs) 384 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Topical - Civil War |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This sweeping new assessment of Civil War monuments unveiled in the United States between the 1860s and 1930s argues that they were pivotal to a national embrace of military values. Americans' wariness of standing armies limited construction of war memorials in the early republic, Thomas J. Brown explains, and continued to influence commemoration after the Civil War. As large cities and small towns across the North and South installed an astonishing range of statues, memorial halls, and other sculptural and architectural tributes to Civil War heroes, communities debated the relationship of military service to civilian life through fund-raising campaigns, artistic designs, oratory, and ceremonial practices. Brown shows that distrust of standing armies gave way to broader enthusiasm for soldiers in the Gilded Age. Some important projects challenged the trend, but many Civil War monuments proposed new norms of discipline and vigor that lifted veterans to a favored political status and modeled racial and class hierarchies. A half century of Civil War commemoration reshaped remembrance of the American Revolution and guided American responses to World War I. Brown provides the most comprehensive overview of the American war memorial as a cultural form and reframes the national debate over Civil War monuments that remain potent presences on the civic landscape. |
Contributor Bio(s): Brown, Thomas J.: - Thomas J. Brown is professor of history at the University of South Carolina and author of Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina. |