Description: When we talk about the Civil War, it is often with references to battles like Antietam, Gettysburg, Bull Run, and, perhaps most tellingly, the Battle of the Wilderness, which all took place in the countryside or in small towns. Part of the reason this picture has persisted is that few of the historians who have studied the war have been urban historians, even though cities hosted, enabled, and shaped southern society as much as in the North. The essays in Andrew Slap and Frank Towers s collection seek to shift the focus from the agrarian economy that undergirded the South to the cities that served as its political and administrative hubs. By demanding a more holistic reading of the South, this collection speaks to contemporary Civil War scholars and classrooms alike not least in providing surprisingly fresh perspectives on a well-studied war."
Brief description: Frank Towers is associate professor of history at the University of Calgary. He is the author of "The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War" and coeditor of "The Old South s Modern Worlds: Slavery, Region, and Nation in the Age of Progress".
Review Quotes: "As the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War draws to an end, Slap and Towers have given us a wonderful collection of incisive and provocative essays by some of the best historians in the field. Southern cities were vital crucibles of mobilization, information, and contestation during the Old South's last stand, and they later became dynamic catalysts for change in the New South."-- "Don H. Doyle, author of The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War"