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Civil War America
The Children's Civil War
Children--white and black, northern and southern--endured a vast and varied range of experiences during the Civil War. Children celebrated victories and mourned defeats, tightened their belts and widened their responsibilities, took part in patriotic displays and suffered shortages and hardships, fled their homes to escape enemy invaders and snatched opportunities to run toward the promise of freedom.
Offering a fascinating look at how children were affected by our nation's greatest crisis, James Marten examines their toys and games, their literature and schoolbooks, the letters they exchanged with absent fathers and brothers, and the hardships they endured. He also explores children's politicization, their contributions to their homelands' war efforts, and the lessons they took away from the war. Drawing on the childhoods of such diverse Americans as Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt, and on sources that range from diaries and memoirs to children's "amateur newspapers," Marten examines the myriad ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children.
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"An original-minded, skillfully and suggestively presented history, haunting in its detailed unfolding of a war that put so many already vulnerable youngsters in danger, but elicited from some of them, as well, impressively sensitive, responsive thoughts, gestures, and deeds in what became, as this extraordinary book's title insists, their civil war.-- Journal of American History
"James Marten's thoroughly researched and engagingly written study . . . stands as one of the most exciting studies to emerge in the last dozen years. . . . Marten has taken a topic ignored by both Civil War historians and historians of childhood and crafted an engaging, masterful, nuanced, and readable study that will not quickly leave the reader's mind or heart.-- American Studies
"The first comprehensive account of Civil War children. . . . Thoroughly researched and nicely illustrated, The Children's Civil War will be a touchstone for historians and generalists who seek to gain a fuller understanding of life on the home front between 1861 and 1865.-- Civil War History
The Children's Civil War is a poignant and fascinating look at childhood during our nation's greatest crisis. Using sources that include diaries, memoirs, and letters, James Marten examines the wartime experiences of young people--boys and girls, black and white, northern and southern--and traces the ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. -->
Offering a fascinating look at how children were affected by our nation's greatest crisis, James Marten examines their toys and games, their literature and schoolbooks, the letters they exchanged with absent fathers and brothers, and the hardships they endured. He also explores children's politicization, their contributions to their homelands' war efforts, and the lessons they took away from the war. Drawing on the childhoods of such diverse Americans as Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt, and on sources that range from diaries and memoirs to children's "amateur newspapers," Marten examines the myriad ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children.
<!-- copy for pb reprint-for catalog quotes should go below short description-->
"An original-minded, skillfully and suggestively presented history, haunting in its detailed unfolding of a war that put so many already vulnerable youngsters in danger, but elicited from some of them, as well, impressively sensitive, responsive thoughts, gestures, and deeds in what became, as this extraordinary book's title insists, their civil war.-- Journal of American History
"James Marten's thoroughly researched and engagingly written study . . . stands as one of the most exciting studies to emerge in the last dozen years. . . . Marten has taken a topic ignored by both Civil War historians and historians of childhood and crafted an engaging, masterful, nuanced, and readable study that will not quickly leave the reader's mind or heart.-- American Studies
"The first comprehensive account of Civil War children. . . . Thoroughly researched and nicely illustrated, The Children's Civil War will be a touchstone for historians and generalists who seek to gain a fuller understanding of life on the home front between 1861 and 1865.-- Civil War History
The Children's Civil War is a poignant and fascinating look at childhood during our nation's greatest crisis. Using sources that include diaries, memoirs, and letters, James Marten examines the wartime experiences of young people--boys and girls, black and white, northern and southern--and traces the ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. -->
368 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 21, 2016
This nuanced book shows the complexity of examining the impact of a significant social event on children’s lives. For children the effect of the civil war was dependent on race, gender, class and geography. Southern white children who felt the war more directly through the battles, the invasion of a foreign army and the scarcities that resulted from an economic blockade the war was different from that of Northern children who were more distant from the war. All of the children felt the effects of losing fathers and brothers, but it was complicated by the other factors. For black children the experience of the war was also terrible, even though it did bring about freedom. Both Northern and Southern whites treated black children badly. Besides feeling all of the other deprivations of war, black children also had to deal with racism. Reconstruction was the white south’s way of winning its war, redeeming its pride at the expense of the blacks. Marten captures all the subtleties and differences in experiences that the different children felt. Some of the psychological traumas were not recognized in the same way as they are today, but many of the processes were the same. The war had an impact over time on the children as the war went on. Many children grew tired of the deprivations of way and many were brutalized by it. Children may have violent tendencies but when the adults are not in control of their own impulses, children are provided with negative examples. Children grew up quickly as they had to assume adult roles. Using a wide variety of sources Marten does an excellent job of tracing some of the impact of these childhood experiences on the adults that the children became. The ideology of the times also had an impact on how the children understood the experiences that they had. In many ways children were sentimentalized, but also they were hardened. Adults were unpredictable and although southern children could see that Union soldiers were not monsters, they grew up blaming blacks for the loss of their world and made the blacks pay for it. The northern soldiers, with some exceptions, could not relate to the blacks. Also the Northerners because they won and because little of the war had been fought on their territory did not obsess over the war as the southerners did. The southerners had to justify their loss and had to regain the lost honor of their fathers. We can see so much of the 20th and 21st century in the experiences of the 19th in the United States as elsewhere.
Want to read
March 17, 2010I had found a passage on Google when searching for historical information about a Freedmen's hospital in DC during the Civil War. The passage was riveting and so I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I have not found the writing to be particularly engaging up to this point; nothing objectionable, just plodding. Hopefully it will improve.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews