Belligerent Muse

Five Northern Writers and How They Shaped Our Understanding of the Civil War

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
Cover of the book Belligerent Muse by Stephen Cushman, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stephen Cushman ISBN: 9781469618784
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: October 13, 2014
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Stephen Cushman
ISBN: 9781469618784
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: October 13, 2014
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

War destroys, but it also inspires, stimulates, and creates. It is, in this way, a muse, and a powerful one at that. The American Civil War was a particularly prolific muse--unleashing with its violent realities a torrent of language, from soldiers' intimate letters and diaries to everyday newspaper accounts, great speeches, and enduring literary works. In Belligerent Muse, Stephen Cushman considers the Civil War writings of five of the most significant and best known narrators of the conflict: Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, William Tecumseh Sherman, Ambrose Bierce, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Considering their writings both as literary expressions and as efforts to record the rigors of the war, Cushman analyzes their narratives and the aesthetics underlying them to offer a richer understanding of how Civil War writing chronicled the events of the conflict as they unfolded and then served to frame the memory of the war afterward.

Elegantly interweaving military and literary history, Cushman uses some of the war's most famous writers and their works to explore the profound ways in which our nation's great conflict not only changed the lives of its combatants and chroniclers but also fundamentally transformed American letters.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

War destroys, but it also inspires, stimulates, and creates. It is, in this way, a muse, and a powerful one at that. The American Civil War was a particularly prolific muse--unleashing with its violent realities a torrent of language, from soldiers' intimate letters and diaries to everyday newspaper accounts, great speeches, and enduring literary works. In Belligerent Muse, Stephen Cushman considers the Civil War writings of five of the most significant and best known narrators of the conflict: Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, William Tecumseh Sherman, Ambrose Bierce, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Considering their writings both as literary expressions and as efforts to record the rigors of the war, Cushman analyzes their narratives and the aesthetics underlying them to offer a richer understanding of how Civil War writing chronicled the events of the conflict as they unfolded and then served to frame the memory of the war afterward.

Elegantly interweaving military and literary history, Cushman uses some of the war's most famous writers and their works to explore the profound ways in which our nation's great conflict not only changed the lives of its combatants and chroniclers but also fundamentally transformed American letters.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book West German Industry and the Challenge of the Nazi Past, 1945-1955 by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Racial Discrimination and Private Education by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Crimes against Children by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Mixed Harvest by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Imagining the Middle East by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Intimations of Modernity by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Shrimp by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Barbecue by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book The Negro and the Schools by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Indians on the Move by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Unprotected Labor by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book A Place Called Appomattox by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book Portrait of America by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book The Black Arts Movement by Stephen Cushman
Cover of the book City of Second Sight by Stephen Cushman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy