Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism

by George C. Rable

Book Overview

Born into a male-dominated society, southern women often chose to support patriarchy and their own celebrated roles as mothers, wives, and guardians of the home and humane values. George C. Rable uncovers the details of how women fit into the South's complex social order and how Southern social assumptions shaped their attitudes toward themselves, their families, and society as a whole. He reveals a bafflingly intricate social order and the ways the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252062124
• ISBN13: 9780252062124
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A WORTHWHILE READ!

The thesis of this book is that Confederate women were slow to challenge the class and gender roles of their society, even though the Civil War exposed them to hardships that required them to temporarily take on the roles of men. George Rable uses a variety of sources, including women's diaries from the period, official Confederate military records, and family papers and correspondence from women and military leaders from the period. Rable shows how the plantation women stepped up and ran the plantations in the absence of most men, who were gone off to the war. He also takes the reader back to a time when the Confederacy was being overrun by Union soldiers. By showing how Conederate women suffered as a result of the thieving and looting carried out by Union soldiers, Rable gives the reader a good insight into why women longed for a return to their traditional and familiar lifestyles. War and ruin would naturally make anyone long for the past, even if the past meant a return to submissive status. If the book has a weakness, it is the fact that Rable limited his study to white women. He did not discuss the roles of African American or Native American women in the Confederacy. However, he did discuss women from wealthy, yeoman, and poor backgrounds. This book is very informative. It is one of my personal favorites. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

The civil war was/is about " dead white women " too.

Short and to the point: The only work today that looks at the "past" civil war through the writings and lives of women. The civil war is often dismissed today because it involves "dead white guys". Not true. And in his meticulous use of diaries and letters Rable puts flesh on the bones of other casualties of the war, the women who suffered and died for their beliefs as well. This is a book which concerns the "home front" which entails fighting only slightly different than that of the battlefield. The leading champion for civil war readers today concerning the role and status of women during the civil war.

Excellent study on Southern women during the War.

Professor Rable has produced an excellent book describing how the Civil War affected the women of the South and detailing their role in the conflict. He did not pursuing his topic from the fradulent perspective of women fighting for "gender" equality and power, which is so popular amongst women historians nowadays.