Description: How children living in the North experienced the Civil War, considered in the larger contexts of economic, political, and cultural developments during the nineteenth century. Mr. Marten opens a new window on the impact of the war and shows that the youngest Americans were inev...
Review Quotes:
"This work would be a welcome addition for any academic library." --Library Journal
"This volume usefully surveys what it was like to be a child in the North during the Civil War. . . . Fluent, jargon-free social history." --Booklist "In this splendid book, James Marten captures the passion and poetry of the children's Civil War." --James M. McPherson "In this detailed look at children and childhood during the Civil War era, James Marten connects compelling personal stories to the larger social, economic, and political events of the time. . . . The result is a volume that skillfully demonstrates the ways in which the war influenced and shaped a generation of children." --Marilyn Irvin Holt, author of Children of the Western Plains "Details the impact of the Civil War on the lives of Northern white children. Provides a welcome glimpse into the lives of Northern middle-class children of the Civil War era." --Heather Cox Richardson, Boston College, Chicago Tribune "Marten's facts have a welcome human face, since he relies heavily on the memoirs of those who experienced the war first-hand." --Foreword Reviews "Effectively integrates the history of the battlefield and the home front in an engaging and well-written social history." --Civil War Book Review "The author's numerous quotations from letters by children to and from their relatives are especially revealing." --The Dallas Morning News "General readers will very much enjoy this book. . . . Recommended." --Choice Reviews "The war spirit on the Northern home front during the Civil War is deftly recounted sparing no details." --The Bookwatch "Gives important insights into how children are affected by war and indoctrinated in wartime values." --Sandra D. Harmon, Journal Of Illinois History "Marten richly demonstrates the vitality of the history of childhood as a research field." --Gail S. Murray, Journal of Southern History "James Marten shows that the Civil War took its toll on everyone it touched." --Brian S. Collier, H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online