The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship - (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) by Paul D Quigley

Book Synopsis

The meanings and practices of American citizenship were as contested during the Civil War era as they are today. By examining a variety of perspectives--from prominent lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to enslaved women, from black firemen in southern cities to Confederate émigrés in Latin America--The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship offers a wide-ranging exploration of citizenship's metamorphoses amid the extended crises of war and emancipation.

Americans in the antebellum era considered citizenship, at its most basic level, as a legal status acquired through birth or naturalization, and one that offered certain rights in exchange for specific obligations. Yet throughout the Civil War period, the boundaries and consequences of what it meant to be a citizen remained in flux. At the beginning of the war, Confederates relinquished their status as U.S. citizens, only to be mostly reabsorbed as full American citizens in its aftermath. The Reconstruction years also saw African American men acquire--at least in theory--the core rights of citizenship. As these changes swept across the nation, Americans debated the parameters of citizenship, the possibility of adopting or rejecting citizenship at will, and the relative importance of political privileges, economic opportunity, and cultural belonging. Ongoing inequities between races and genders, over the course of the Civil War and in the years that followed, further shaped these contentious debates.

The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship reveals how war, Emancipation, and Reconstruction forced the country to rethink the concept of citizenship not only in legal and constitutional terms but also within the context of the lives of everyday Americans, from imprisoned Confederates to former slaves.

Review Quotes

Historians have long agreed that American citizenship underwent a major transformation during the Civil War era, but only recently have they begun to probe deeply into how and why this transformation took place. This superb essay collection showcases some of the best new work on this challenging topic. . . from federal law-making to ground-level contests, from wartime conflicts over racial status to postwar struggles over modern manhood. The collection represents the new starting point for the examination of Civil War era citizenship, showcasing the research of both established scholars and an exciting new generation of talented historians.--Michael Vorenberg, author of The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents

In nine sparkling essays and a provocative introduction and conclusion, The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship opens up whole new fields for scholarly investigation of the crucial but easily misunderstood concept of citizenship. Tracing the redefinition and repurposing of the concept across many divides, this collection shows citizenship in its making and unmaking during the crucible of the Civil War era. A book that should launch dozens of research projects and more than a few good arguments.--Gregory P. Downs, author of After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War

About the Author

Paul Quigley is James I. Robertson, Jr., Associate Professor of Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech and the author of Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-1865.