The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 Book

In this profound work of scholarship Nina Silber makes a monumental contribution to the collective comprehension of Northern women's role in the Civil War and how it shaped the subsequent development of women's role in and rights within American society.

Silber points out near the end of the book that when women appear in popular culture Civil War stories (infrequently), they are invariably feisty Southern women. The role of Northern women, on the homefront, in the hospitals, working jobs in the bureaucracy, has been so forgotten in the lore and narratives of the war that it is shocking. Daughters of the Union sets out to correct this omission, adopting a broad intellectual approach'sprinkling in many snippets of individual stories, but generally approaching Northern women's experience thematically and conceptually.

One of the most difficult things for a modern student of history is attempting to conceptualize the worldview, norms, and attitudes of someone from the past. Silber devotes several chapters to these questions, dwelling on the Victorian cult of domesticity, the importance of religion in women's role in the family, the significance of being a person without legal standing outside of one's spouse... These are difficult issues to paint engagingly, tending to dissipate into soporific abstractions, but Silber does a remarkable job grounding the presentation of her research in concrete details that bring her observations and assertions to life through the voices of participants. Subsequent chapters look at concrete roles that women took on'nursing, sanitary commissions, teachers of freed slaves, etc.

Daughters of the Union starts out slowly, and I confess that I found it dry in the early going. However, as Silber passes from the broad assertion of her thesis into the concrete dimensions of the lives and world she has researched, she brings the past to life. The scope here is intimidating, but Silber manages to bring such vivid detail through the voices of her sources that I found myself frequently lost in daydreaming, working through the exercise of putting myself into the mind space of the speakers. Daughters is often upsetting'many of the nuances Silber points out underscore the oppressive horrors of 19th century patriarchy, and there were many times reading this book when I felt demoralized, reflecting on how far we still have to go to move past misogyny in America.

In the end, what more can you ask for from an academic history? The sources are lovingly collected and well reinforced by simple, confident prose. The thesis is compellingly advanced throughout the chapters. There is both plenty of clarifying exposition and plenty of primary source quotation. Daughters of the Union succeeds in the difficult task of both advancing a thesis argument and relaying a vivid narrative of the past. Bravo!