The Long Shadow of the Civil War - by Victoria E Bynum (Paperback)

About the Book

Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies

Book Synopsis

The Long Shadow of the Civil War relates uncommon narratives about common Southern folks who fought not with the Confederacy, but against it. Focusing on regions in three Southern states -- North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas -- Victoria E. Bynum introduces Unionist supporters, guerrilla soldiers, defiant women, socialists, populists, free blacks, and large interracial kin groups that belie stereotypes of Southerners as uniformly supportive of the Confederate cause. Centered on the concepts of place, family, and community, Bynum's insightful and carefully documented work effectively counters the idea of a unified South caught in the grip of the Lost Cause.

Review Quotes

"A masterful community study. . . . Based on exhaustive and innovative research. . . . [That] brilliantly demonstrates that common men and women, yeoman farmers, poor whites, slaves, and freedpeople left their stories behind for historians to excavate." -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly

"Bynum has plunged deeply into the primary sources on these interesting individuals, family groups, and local communities. . . . Valuable . . . because it proves that dissent was not rare and insignificant." -- H-Civil War

"Bynum highlights the 'solid South' as a construction and even more successfully presents the importance of 'kinship, community, and place' in sustaining resistance to oppression." -- Publishers Weekly

"Bynum maps a road that few took, but the evocative stories of these families demand notice." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

"Fascinating. . . . Bynum demonstrates an impressive, intricate knowledge of the case. . . . The book is an interesting read and opens up avenues for scholars who wish to trace kinship migrations throughout the South and the cultural linkages those migrations may have established." -- The Review of Politics

"Historians wishing to pursue such comparisons and questions will find great value in Bynum's careful research." -- Journal of the Civil War Era

"Offers vivid examples of the different Souths that fought, endured, and remembered the war." -- North Carolina Historical Review

"Supported by impressive research and crafted to enlighten rather than celebrate or condemn, this book offers a penetrating portrait of the dissenters and their world. A strong addition to upper-level Civil War collections, it will also serve as a lively read for the general public. . . . Highly recommended." -- CHOICE

"The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth has come and gone, and with it a flood of books about the sixteenth president. But the sesquicentennial of the Civil War now looms on the horizon, promising its own deluge of books of every size, shape and description. We will be fortunate indeed if in sheer originality and insight they measure up to . . . The Long Shadow of the Civil War, [a] new work by . . . Victoria Bynum . . . on the Confederate experience." -- Eric Foner, The Nation

"Those who enjoy the study of Reconstruction social and political battles as much or more than the military conflicts of the Civil War will find a wealth of material here for further study. . . . [Bynum's] engaging writing style will no doubt interest many readers of her book as well." -- TOCWOC