Description: This excellent collection of selections from leading scholars on who the soldiers were, how they lived, and why they fought is a fine introduction to years of research that seeks to answer that question.
Brief description: Michael Barton is professor of American studies and social science at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg and author of Goodmen: The Character of Civil War Soldiers. Logue and Barton are co-editors of The Civil War Soldier: A Historical Reader (NYU Press, 2002).
Review Quotes: "Understanding what convinced Civil War soldiers to lay down their lives for the cause, North AND South, is perhaps the hardest part of teaching about making sense of the war. This excellent collection of selections from leading scholars on who the soldiers were, how they lived, and why they fought is a fine introduction to years of research that seeks to answer that question."--Janet Coryell, Western Michigan University