Overview

In this groundbreaking reconsideration of the Civil War, the award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning invites us to see America's bloodiest conflict not just as pitting brother against brother but as a woman's war. When the war broke out, Union soldiers assumed Confederate women would be innocent noncombatants. Experience soon challenged this simplistic belief. Stephanie McCurry reveals the vital and sometimes confounding roles women played on and off the battlefield. We meet Clara Judd, a Confederate spy whose imprisonment for treason sparked heated controversy, defying the principle of civilian immunity and leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved women escaped across Union lines, upending emancipation policies that extended only to enslaved men. The Union's response was to classify fugitive black women as soldiers' wives, regardless of whether they were married--offering them some protection but placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. In the war's aftermath, the Confederate grande dame Gertrude Thomas wrestled with her loss of status and of her former slaves. War, emancipation, and economic devastation affected her family intimately, and through her life McCurry helps us see how fundamental the changes of Reconstruction were.

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9781665210164

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Reviews

"[Stephen McCurry] demonstrates how women's participation changed not only their lives but the very understanding of war itself--its laws, its mechanisms of violence, its legacies and aftermath. In this brilliant exposition of the politics of the seemingly personal, McCurry illuminates previously unrecognized dimensions of the war's elemental impact.-- ""Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering"" ""A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women."" -- ""David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass"" ""As Stephanie McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a 'people's war' nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people."" -- ""James M. McPherson, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Correcting histories that erase women's share in wartime work, McCurry reminds us that 'women are never just witnesses to war.'"" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""McCurry scrutinizes legal archives compiled by men, seeking glimpses of women they overlooked, whose voices enliven the book."" -- ""New Yorker"" ""Readers expecting hoop-skirted ladies soothing fevered soldiers' brows will not find them here...It explodes the fiction that men fight wars while women idle on the sidelines."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Teri Schnaubelt gives a brisk and energetic narration of this look at the role of women in the American Civil War...Schnaubelt has a clear voice and a direct, forceful delivery."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Women were serving as smugglers, scouts, decoys, insurgents, and combatants; ignore them at your peril."" -- ""New Republic"""

[Stephen McCurry] demonstrates how women's participation changed not only their lives but the very understanding of war itself--its laws, its mechanisms of violence, its legacies and aftermath. In this brilliant exposition of the politics of the seemingly personal, McCurry illuminates previously unrecognized dimensions of the war's elemental impact.-- Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women. -- David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass As Stephanie McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a 'people's war' nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people. -- James M. McPherson, New York Times bestselling author Correcting histories that erase women's share in wartime work, McCurry reminds us that 'women are never just witnesses to war.' -- Wall Street Journal McCurry scrutinizes legal archives compiled by men, seeking glimpses of women they overlooked, whose voices enliven the book. -- New Yorker Readers expecting hoop-skirted ladies soothing fevered soldiers' brows will not find them here...It explodes the fiction that men fight wars while women idle on the sidelines. -- Washington Post Teri Schnaubelt gives a brisk and energetic narration of this look at the role of women in the American Civil War...Schnaubelt has a clear voice and a direct, forceful delivery. -- AudioFile Women were serving as smugglers, scouts, decoys, insurgents, and combatants; ignore them at your peril. -- New Republic

Author Information

Stephanie McCurry is the author of Confederate Reckoning, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Merle Curti Prize, the Avery O. Craven Award, and the Willie Lee Rose Prize. Her book Masters of Small Worlds won the John Hope Franklin Prize and four other awards. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of History in Honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University. She grew up in Belfast, Ireland, during the Troubles. Teri Schnaubelt is a Chicago-based stage, on-camera, and voice actor as well as oil painter and photographer. An Earphones Award-winning narrator, she has voiced over a hundred books for New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, in addition to helping independent authors get their stories heard.

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