Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914

by William A. Blair

Overview

Blair examines Civil War commemorations of blacks and whites and shows how arguments over how the war would be remembered and memorialized were part of a larger competition over how society would be structured and power exercised.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807876237
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/20/2011
Series:	Civil War America
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	705 KB

About the Author

William Blair is associate professor of history and director of the Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University.
William Blair is associate professor of history and director of the Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University. He is author of Virginia’s Private War: Feeding Body and Soul in the Confederacy and editor of the journal Civil War History.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“[An] excellent study. . . . [Blair] effectively highlights African American political struggle through the creation and use of public commemorative events.” — Journal of African American History

“Cities of the Dead ranks Blair among a growing group of scholars studying memory and the Civil War. [His] genius lies in his carefully reasoned explanations, of how and why these celebrations carried political meaning in particular historical moments.” — Civil War Book Review

“Commemoration in the postwar South is an intriguing topic that has been neglected until now.” — Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

“Blair does an excellent job of tracing the subtleties of political discourse. . . . [Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914] reminds us that politics cannot be extricated from the tangle of memory, commemoration, and reunion in the post-Civil War South.” — Civil War History

“The more clearly we understand how commemorative activities have functioned in the past to influence political outcomes, the more effective we can be in the present. William Blair deserves credit for a fine effort in this direction.” — H-South

“Readers who want to think about the broader aspects of the 1860s and those interested in current controversies over such Civil War-related matters as 'Dixie' and the Confederate flag will profit greatly from Blair’s book.” — Civil War News

“Blair has produced a worthy exploration of the evolution of Emancipation Day and Memorial Day celebrations in post-Civil War Virginia.” — Virginia Libraries

“That southerners would feel compelled to commemorate the Civil War was inevitable, but the form and content of their commemorations was not. Blair has written a fascinating and deeply researched account of the commemorative impulse in the postbellum South when the first 'culture wars' flared up. He reveals the grief, pride, and pluck that southerners, black and white, displayed as they tried to impose order on their region’s recent past.” — W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of Where These Memories Grow

Editorial Reviews

“A book worth reading, especially for those interested in questions of memory and commemoration.” — American Historical Review

“Provocative. . . . A sophisticated and nuanced analysis.” — Arkansas Historical Quarterly

From the Publisher