Legacy of Disunion: The Enduring Significance of the American Civil War - Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War

Publisher Marketing: The conviction that the American Civil War left a massive legacy to the country has generally been much clearer than the definition of what that legacy is. Did the war, as Ulysses S. Grant believed, bequeath power, intelligence, and sectional harmony to America, or did it, as many have argued since, sow racial and regional bitterness that has blighted the nation since 1865? What, exactly, was the legacy of disunion? This collection explores that question from a variety of angles, showcasing the work of twelve scholars from the United States and the United Kingdom. The essays ponder the role of history, myth, and media in sustaining the memory of the war and its racial implications in the South; Abraham Lincoln's legacy; and the war's consequences in less studied areas, such as civil-military relations and constitutional and legal history. By juxtaposing American and non-American interpretations, this stimulating volume reveals aspects of the war's legacy that from a purely American viewpoint are sometimes too close for comfort.

Contributor Bio:  Grant, Susan-Mary Susan-Mary Grant is Professor of American History at Newcastle University. She is the author of North Over South: Northern Nationalism and American Identity in the Antebellum Era (2000), The War for a Nation: The American Civil War (2006) and editor of Legacy of Disunion: The Enduring Significance of the American Civil War (2003) and Themes of the American Civil War: The War Between the States (2010). Contributor Bio:  Parish, Peter J PETER J. PARISH was Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and author of Slavery: History and Historians and The American Civil War.