Man by Any Other Name - (Uncivil Wars) by Joseph M Beilein Jr

About the Book

"Few men of the Civil War era were as complicated or infamous as William Clarke Quantrill. Most who know him recognize him as the architect of the Confederate guerrilla raid on Lawrence, Kansas in August of 1863 that led to the murder of 180 mostly unarmed men and boys. Before that, though, Quantrill led a transient life, shifting from one masculine form to another. He played the role of fastidious schoolmaster, rough frontiersman, and even confidence man developing certain notions and skills on his way to becoming a pro-slavery bushwhacker. Quantrill remains impossible to categorize, a man whose motivations have been difficult to pin down. Using new documents and old documents examined in new ways, A Man By Any Other Name paints the most authentic portrait of Quantrill yet rendered. The detailed study of this man explores an enigmatic figure - one of a kind - but also allows us entry into many representative experiences of the Civil War generation. This picture brings to life a unique vision of antebellum life in the territories as well as a fresh view of guerrilla warfare on the border. Of even greater consequence, seeing Quantrill in this way allows us to examine the essence of American manhood in the mid-nineteenth century"--

Book Synopsis

Few men of the Civil War era were as complicated or infamous as William Clarke Quantrill. Most who know him recognize him as the architect of the Confederate raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863 that led to the murder of 180 mostly unarmed men and boys. Before that, though, Quantrill led a transient life, shifting from one masculine form to another. He played the role of fastidious schoolmaster, rough frontiersman, and even confidence man, developing certain notions and skills on his way to becoming a proslavery bushwhacker. Quantrill remains impossible to categorize, a man whose motivations have been difficult to pin down.

Using new documents and old documents examined in new ways, A Man by Any Other Name paints the most authentic portrait of Quantrill yet rendered. The detailed study of this man not only explores a one-of-a-kind enigmatic figure but also allows us entry into many representative experiences of the Civil War generation. This picture brings to life a unique vision of antebellum life in the territories and a fresh view of guerrilla warfare on the border. Of even greater consequence, seeing Quantrill in this way allows us to examine the perceived essence of American manhood in the mid-nineteenth century.

Review Quotes

A Man by Any Other Name stands as an impressionistic biography that examines Quantrill through the different manly guises-- schoolmaster, frontiersman, confidence man, warrior, chieftain, and wanderer--that he donned across his short adult life. . . . Readers may question, with reason, whether we can ever fully know a figure so slippery, enigmatic, and shrouded by archival silences. Yet Beilein's monograph, which should appeal to scholars and enthusiasts alike, is a welcome reminder that historians need not shy away from the challenge.--Jeremy Neely "Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"

The book seamlessly blends genres, reading at once like a detective story, a biography, and a Civil War history. Beilein showcases not only his skills as a historian of guerrilla warfare and masculinity but also his considerable flair for writing.--James J. Broomall "Missouri Historical Review"

A new generation of scholars has taken to the study of the Civil War's wiliest warriors. A Man by Any Other Name is a critical entry in this latest wave of scholarship: giving readers deep insight into the challenge of researching men, like William Clarke Quantrill, who operated on the margins of history. . . . [T]hese new works also seek to understand the Civil War's guerrillas in the context of their own society and time, rather than viewing them through a comparative lens. Beilein does the former exceptionally well, an achievement that will make this study standard reading for many years to come.--Cecily N. Zander "The Civil War Monitor"

For the reader who is new to Quantrill or knows little about his life Beilein's biography is a good accompaniment as a tool to understanding the man behind the guerilla mask, as well as the ideologies of Southern partisans within the context of nineteenth-century American manhood.--Sheritta Bitikofer "Emerging Civil War"

A Man by Any Other Name is not a traditional cradle-to-grave biography of a Civil War figure. It might be fair to categorize it as an episodic psycho-biography that seeks to understand its seemingly unknowable subject in deeper ways than those attempted by earlier biographers.-- "Civil War Books and Authors"

In A Man by Any Other Name, Beilein has crafted a biography of a man, essentially unknown, whose actions make him an important figure in the Civil War as it was fought on the western borderland. Quantrill is representative of hundreds of comparable figures who fade into and out of communities' contested regions. What Beilein has done here is give life to an individual and a broader group that desperately need to be known by modern scholars.--Brian D. McKnight "coeditor of The Guerrilla Hunters: Irregular Conflicts During the Civil War"

About the Author

JOSEPH M. BEILEIN JR. is an associate professor of history at Penn State Erie, Behrend. He is the author of Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri, editor of William Gregg's Civil War: The Battle to Shape the History of Guerrilla Warfare (Georgia), and coeditor of The Civil War Guerrilla: Unfolding the Black Flag in History, Memory, and Myth.