Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song

by Chris Mackowski (Editor), Nick Sacco (Contribution by), Meg Groeling (Contribution by), Chris Barr (Contribution by), Ryan Longfellow (Contribution by)

Overview

Popular media can spark the national consciousness in a way that captures people’s attention, interests them in history, and inspires them to visit battlefields, museums, and historic sites. This lively collection of essays and feature stories celebrates the novels, popular histories, magazines, movies, television shows, photography, and songs that have enticed Americans to learn more about our most dramatic historical era.

From Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, from Roots to Ken Burns’s The Civil War, from “Dixie” to “Ashokan Farewell,” and from Civil War photography to the Gettysburg Cyclorama, trendy and well-loved depictions of the Civil War are the subjects of twenty contributors who tell how they and the general public have been influenced by them. Sarah Kay Bierle examines the eternal appeal of Gone with the Wind and asks how it is that a protagonist who so opposed the war has become such a figurehead for it. H. R. Gordon talks with New York Times–bestselling novelist Jeff Shaara to discuss the power of storytelling. Paul Ashdown explores ColdMountain’s value as a portrait of the war as national upheaval, and Kevin Pawlak traces a shift in cinema’s depiction of slavery epitomized by 12 Years a Slave. Tony Horwitz revisits his iconic Confederates in the Attic twenty years later.

The contributors’ fresh analysis articulates a shared passion for history’s representation in the popular media. The variety of voices and topics in this collection coalesces into a fascinating discussion of some of the most popular texts in the genres. In keeping with the innovative nature of this series, web-exclusive material extends the conversation beyond the book.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809337583
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	02/10/2020
Series:	Engaging the Civil War
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	254
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Chris Mackowski is the editor in chief of Emerging Civil War and a coeditor of the Engaging the Civil War series. The historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield, and the author of more than a dozen books, he is a writing in St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication, where he also serves as associate dean of undergraduate programs.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION
By Chris Mackowski  
Of the five books assigned for my undergraduate Civil War class, I read—I am now ashamed to admit—only two. Of the three I did not read, one never even made it out of the plastic wrapper it came in, and I sold it back new at semester’s end. The other two somehow remained with me all these years and occupy places in my Civil War library, and I’ve since, out of guilt, gone back to read them. Better late than never. 
 
The two I read at the time were Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels and Bruce Catton’s A Stillness at Appomattox. It probably comes as no surprise to Civil War buffs that those two books in particular caught my eye—but at the time, I was no Civil War buff. As a college junior, I had enrolled in Rick Frederick’s Civil War class because he was an amazing storyteller and “funnier ’n hell,” as we said. His seventy-five-minute lectures doubled as stand-up comedy routines, and by the end of each one, our hands cramped from note-taking and our sides stitched from laughing. And lo and behold, after that laughter died down, we discovered in the midst of all that shtick we’d learned a lot, too. (I’m fortunate to have Rick among the contributors to this volume.) 
 
Beyond Rick’s wonderful talent as a professor, though, I had no particular interest in the Civil War. Glory had come out the year before, but Ferris Bueller as Colonel Robert Shaw had been hard to get past.
 
Shaara and Catton had both grabbed my attention, though. Both wrote in easily accessible styles—Shaara’s more literary and Catton’s more journalistic. I knew little about Appomattox beyond what I’d see in the TV miniseries The Blue and the Gray, but Catton took me there and helped me appreciate the poignancy and gravity of the event. Gettysburg I knew much more about, having grown up not too far from the battlefield, but Shaara helped me appreciate events in an entirely new way.
 
These storytellers—Shaara, Catton, and Frederick—made a profound impact on me without my even realizing it. Only two decades later, when I began writing Civil War history myself, did I come to understand that impact. Even then, it didn’t click until I heard David McCullough’s 2003 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities. “No harm’s done to historyby making it something someone would want to read,” McCullough said.1 I figured that as a two-time Pulitzer winner and New York Times best seller, he
knew what he was talking about.
 
I came to history writing sideways, through my professional work as a journalist, my avocational work as a creative writer, and my academic work in English. I’ve long understood the value of—and been inspired by—a good story. And in my Civil War adventures, I’ve heard from so many other people hooked by Shaara or Catton or Gone with the Wind or Glory. This book, then, in a way, is a celebration of the great books, movies, TV shows, and songs that have hooked so many of us and brought us to the Civil War. Our hope is that in reading this collection, you will feel as if you’re sitting down with a bunch of folks who like a lot of the same books and movies you do and having an enjoyable conversation about them. I hope, too, that you discover a gem that you might otherwise not have encountered before, or that you’ll discover something new in a work you thought you knew. I hope this collection leads to new appreciations for you.
 
This collection is not intended as a comprehensive survey, although we’ve tried to hit most of the most influential works. We’ve divided them into three sections: print, film, and music. Each section offers an example or two of a Civil War-era work that still enjoys modern popularity and then moves in roughly chronological order toward the present. We’ve organized the collection this way for easier apples-to-apples discussions so that, for instance, essays about movies are in conversation with other essays about movies. After all, that is the way movie fans tend to discuss movies (unless they’re comparing a movie to the book it was adapted from). An alternative approach would have been to forgo the subdivisions and just offer a single chronological approach as a way to show an evolution in the way we remember the war. An online
appendix provides a chronological listing.
 
The print section begins with a pair of authors most of us have read in middle school or high school, offering us our first taste of Civil War literature—and, for many of us, our first taste of the war itself. Then we look at some of the other heavy hitters of Civil War writing: Ulysses S. Grant, Bruce Catton, MacKinlay Kantor, Shelby Foote, Michael and Jeff Shaara, and more. We’ve arranged them in order of first publication, intermingling works of fiction and nonfiction. The section wraps up by looking at Civil War magazines.
 
The film section begins with photography—done on glass plates rather than actual film, if we’re getting technical—because images from the battlefield had a powerful visual impact unrivaled by anything else the media could offer. We then look at cycloramas—which are giant works of art on canvas, not film—but as visual spectacles, they were all the rage in their day as the equivalent of today’s 3-D IMAX movies. Then we get into movies and TV shows, putting some essays and movies into conversation with each other in ways that we hope will help you see them a little differently.
 
The music section starts with what’s probably the most recognizable Civil War-era song, followed by a piece that looks at other pop music of the day along with some modern musicians who help keep that music alive. We’ll touch on some modern favorites, including what’s probably the most recognizable modern Civil War song, and we’ll finish under the lights of Broadway with a story that might well be the exception that proves our larger rule: sometimes Civil War-themed popular entertainment does not necessarily translate into wider interest.
 
You’ll find a wide variety of voices and styles in this book, which is true of any group conversation but something that’s a particular hallmark of Emerging Civil War. Our writers have diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and approaches, which helps keep the conversation fresh—an approach that’s served our readers well at www.emergingcivilwar.com and an approach we’ve tried to replicate here.
 
Aside from a great collection of contributors—whose bios are all in the back—we’re also excited about the lineup of “guest stars” we have in this book. William C. “Jack” Davis, the legendary former editor of Civil War Times, took time to talk with us. So did Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tony Horwitz, best-selling author Jeff Shaara, noted historians John Hennessy and Timothy B. Smith, and beloved Civil War musician Bobby Horton. A half dozen other experts also lent their voices to our conversation, for which we’re grateful. Beyond the book, you’ll find additional web-exclusive content at www.emergingcivilwar.com, including essays about other movies, books, TV shows, songs, poems, and writers. You can access that material using the QR codes at the beginning of each section. And next year, a companion volume will look at some of the connections between history and popular culture in broader contexts, touching on such things as reenacting, commemoration, politics, genealogy, memoir, and more.
 
We’ve tried to keep this collection as engaging as the examples we discuss. The resulting conversation—with its varied voices, perspectives, and styles—will, we hope, prove lively, entertaining, eclectic, and thoughtful. After all, we love these books and movies and shows and songs. They’re fun and cool. They’re beloved. They capture our imagination. While giving you plenty to think about, we hope we also honor that spirit.
 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 

List of Table and Figures 
Acknowledgments 

Prologue: The Ken Burns Effect by Chris Mackowski
Introduction by Chris Mackowski

Part One. The War of Words: The Civil War in Literature
1. Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane: A “First Look” at the Civil War through Fiction by Amelia Ann and Chris Mackowski
2. Interpreting the Man: General Ulysses S. Grant and His Personal Memoirs by Nick Sacco
3. Glory Road: Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac Series by Meg Groeling
4. From the Pages to the Park: The Influence of Popular Literature on Andersonville National Historic Site by Chris Barr
5. History Meets Art Meets Television: Shelby Foote and The Civil War by Chris Mackowski 
6. “Rejoice. The Civil War Series for All Time”: Remembering Those Silver Books from Time-Life by Meg Groeling
7. James McPherson’s Battle Cry by Ryan Longfellow
8. There’s More to Groom Than Gump: The Civil War Writings of Winston Groom by Richard G. Frederick
9. A Conversation with Jeff Shaara by H. R. Gordon
10. Cold Mountain and the Itch of Interest by Paul Ashdown
11. Revisiting Confederates in the Attic: An Interview with Tony Horwitz by  H. R. Gordon
12. The Civil War Periodically by Mary Koik

Part Two. Seeing Is Believing: The Civil War on Film
13. The War Laid in Our Dooryards: Civil War Photography by Kevin Pawlak
14. The Gettysburg Cyclorama: Entertainment of the Past, Present, and Future by Chris Brenneman
15. Marching against Dixie: The Creation of Gone with the Wind as an American Icon by Sarah Kay Bierle
16. “The Elephant in the Room”: Slavery in Cinema from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave by Kevin Pawlak
17. The Civil War in Prime Time: The TV Miniseries Roots, The Blue and the Gray, and North and South by Andrew Brumbaugh
18. The Civil War Trifecta: How Three Films Shaped Our Perceptions of America’s Bloodiest Conflict by Jared Frederick
19. One Giant, Forgotten Leap: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of the H. L. Hunley by Brian Hicks
20. Abraham Lincoln: Freedom Fighter, Vampire Hunter, and Zombie Killer by Ashley Webb

Part Three. For Your Listening Pleasure: The Civil War in Song
21. “Dixie” by Dan Welch
22. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”: Origins, Influence, Legacies by John Stauffer
23. Bobby Horton and Sam Watkins: All along “The Kennesaw Line” by Chris Mackowski
24. Not from This Century: A Longing Melody from a Modern Time—“Ashokan Farewell” by Dan Welch
25. The Civil War: American Epoch, Nashville Album, and Broadway Musical by Rebecca S. Campana Conclusion by Chris Mackowski

Contributors 
Index 

Editorial Reviews

With history getting short shrift these days in the halls of academia and almost everywhere else in society, it is gratifying that an attempt is being made to potentially engage the interest of the social media generation with this edition of public history essays which seek to elucidate via the three most popular forms of media: print, video and audio.”—Stuart McClung, Journal of America’s Military Past

“Civil War history buffs will no doubt find treatments of the their favorite works as well as make discoveries of unknown gems.”—Jim Cullen, Journal of Southern History

"As befits its subject, this is an interesting, eclectic work whose contributors frequently offer personal testimony to how particular representations of the was in popular culture sparked and shaped their interests. . . . [It] offers plenty to not just inform, but also entertain its readers."—Ethan S. Rafuse, Civil War Times

"Entertaining History contains a highly eclectic collection of perspectives on many notable examples of Civil War education and entertainment through novels, short stories, mail order book series, movies, television programs, music, and theater. . . . A thoroughly engaging exploration of the popularization of the Civil War in song and on page and screen. Recommended."—Andrew Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors

“Brisk and lively, the essays in Entertaining History convey the immersive joy of reading, watching, and listening to popular Civil War history.”—Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War

“The contributors to this volume have written an engaging collection of short essays introducing readers to many of the key works of literature, film, and music that influence how we remember the Civil War.”—Christian McWhirter, author of Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War
 

From the Publisher