The South Vs. The South

How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Minority Studies, African-American Studies, History, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
Cover of the book The South Vs. The South by William W. Freehling, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William W. Freehling ISBN: 9780199832071
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: November 14, 2002
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: William W. Freehling
ISBN: 9780199832071
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: November 14, 2002
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Why did the Confederacy lose the Civil War? Most historians point to the larger number of Union troops, for example, or the North's greater industrial might. Now, in The South Vs. the South, one of America's leading authorities on the Civil War era offers an entirely new answer to this question. William Freehling argues that anti-Confederate Southerners--specifically, border state whites and southern blacks--helped cost the Confederacy the war. White men in such border states as Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, Freehling points out, were divided in their loyalties--but far more joined the Union army (or simply stayed home) than marched off in Confederate gray. If they had enlisted as rebel troops in the same proportion as white men did farther south, their numbers would have offset all the Confederate casualties during four years of war. In addition, when those states stayed loyal, the vast majority of the South's urban population and industrial capacity remained in Union hands. And many forget, Freehling writes, that the slaves' own decisions led to a series of white decisions (culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation) that turned federal forces into an army of liberation, depriving the South of labor and adding essential troops to the blue ranks. Whether revising our conception of slavery or of Abraham Lincoln, or establishing the antecedents of Martin Luther King, or analyzing Union military strategy, or uncovering new meanings in what is arguably America's greatest piece of sculpture, Augustus St.-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial, Freehling writes with piercing insight and rhetorical verve. Concise and provocative, The South Vs. the South will forever change the way we view the Civil War.

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

Why did the Confederacy lose the Civil War? Most historians point to the larger number of Union troops, for example, or the North's greater industrial might. Now, in The South Vs. the South, one of America's leading authorities on the Civil War era offers an entirely new answer to this question. William Freehling argues that anti-Confederate Southerners--specifically, border state whites and southern blacks--helped cost the Confederacy the war. White men in such border states as Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, Freehling points out, were divided in their loyalties--but far more joined the Union army (or simply stayed home) than marched off in Confederate gray. If they had enlisted as rebel troops in the same proportion as white men did farther south, their numbers would have offset all the Confederate casualties during four years of war. In addition, when those states stayed loyal, the vast majority of the South's urban population and industrial capacity remained in Union hands. And many forget, Freehling writes, that the slaves' own decisions led to a series of white decisions (culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation) that turned federal forces into an army of liberation, depriving the South of labor and adding essential troops to the blue ranks. Whether revising our conception of slavery or of Abraham Lincoln, or establishing the antecedents of Martin Luther King, or analyzing Union military strategy, or uncovering new meanings in what is arguably America's greatest piece of sculpture, Augustus St.-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial, Freehling writes with piercing insight and rhetorical verve. Concise and provocative, The South Vs. the South will forever change the way we view the Civil War.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Better PowerPoint (R) by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Freedom from Fear:The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Mahler's Symphonic Sonatas by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Consciousness and Fundamental Reality by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book The BRICS and Collective Financial Statecraft by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Can Animals Be Moral? by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Remade in China by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Radiology Strategies by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book The Simple Flute by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Managing Disruptive Change in Healthcare by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Neuroimaging in Ophthalmology by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Rationality and the Good by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book The Performance of 16th-Century Music by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book The Rise of Yeast by William W. Freehling
Cover of the book Mechanical Ventilation by William W. Freehling
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