Synopses & Reviews
"The list of publications Bernath consulted . . . is close to definitive. . . . Good books like this one will stimulate debate and further research. Bernath's study will be required reading for historians of the Confederacy and nineteenth-century South."
-H-Net Reviews "Provides meaningful insight into an understudied aspect of the Confederate experience. . . . An excellent book that deserves wide readership."
-Civil War Book Review "Make[s] provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life with the Confederacy, and the perception of cultural distinctiveness."
-The Courier "Thanks to Bernath's study, the soil now is rich for future research into the Civil War's complex intellectual history. Scholars of the Civil War, southern history, and American intellectual history should be grateful for this fine contribution to the field."
-West Virginia History "Makes provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life within the Confederacy, and the perception of Southern cultural distinctiveness."
-McCormick Messenger "This carefully and exhaustively researched book brings into sharp focus the sheer number--and the sheer persistence--of editors and educators who sought to create an intellectual culture in the South. Bernath's admirable study corrects anyone who thinks that wartime turmoil shut down the full-throated cry of antebellum Southern partisanship."
-Steven Stowe, author of Doctoring the South: Southern Physicians and Everyday Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century "Nicely written and well-organized. . . . The greatest strength of this book is the author's impressive ability to synthesize and present a vast quantity of diverse writings. Anyone interested in the nature and fate of the Confederacy beyond the battlefield will find this thoroughly researched work to be rewarding and highly informative."
-Florida Historical Quarterly "A very clear and forcefully argued treatment of the drive for cultural independence in the Confederacy. It is based on exhaustive study of periodicals, pamphlets, and all kinds of printed matter produced during the Civil War. A most original and significant contribution to southern intellectual history and to the history of the Confederacy."
-George C. Rable, author of Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! "It is stimulating and opening an area of the war that we do not often see. . . . A detailed look at the home front in an essential industry and the development of a nation."
-TOCWOC
Review
"This carefully and exhaustively researched book brings into sharp focus the sheer number--and the sheer persistence--of editors and educators who sought to create an intellectual culture in the South. Bernath's admirable study corrects anyone who thinks that wartime turmoil shut down the full-throated cry of antebellum Southern partisanship."
-Steven Stowe, author of Doctoring the South: Southern Physicians and Everyday Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Review
"Deeply researched and gracefully written. . . . [An] excellent study."
-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Review
"[
Confederate Minds] is well written, amply researched and tightly argued. For those interested in the attempted development of a distinct Confederate culture, this book is a welcome contribution."
-Civil War News
Review
"Provides meaningful insight into an understudied aspect of the Confederate experience. . . . An excellent book that deserves wide readership."
-Civil War Book Review
Review
"The scope of [Bernath's] research is impressive, and his findings are worth exploring."
-North Carolina Historical Review
Review
"A valuable look at the Confederate experience of war from a unique point of view."
-The Review of Politics
Review
"This valuable work finally puts to rest the notion that the Confederacy was an intellectual wasteland and that Confederates had nothing to say aside from their rebel yell."
-Journal of American History
Review
"
Confederate Minds is the most comprehensive and the most sophisticated assessment of Confederate intellectual history we have."
-Tennessee Historical Quarterly
Review
"A valuable book. It represents an enormous amount of research that will teach students of the Civil War a great deal about an important group of individuals who sought to realize Confederate nationalism."
-Georgia Historical Quarterly
Synopsis
During the Civil War, Confederates fought for much more than their political independence. They also fought to prove the distinctiveness of the Southern people and to legitimate their desire for a separate national existence through the creation of a uniquely Southern literature and culture. In this important new book, Michael Bernath follows the activities of a group of Southern writers, thinkers, editors, publishers, educators, and ministers--whom he labels Confederate cultural nationalists--in order to trace the rise and fall of a cultural movement dedicated to liberating the South from its longtime dependence on Northern books, periodicals, and teachers.
This struggle for Confederate "intellectual independence" was seen as a vital part of the larger war effort. For the Southern nationalists, independence won on the battlefield would be meaningless as long as Southerners remained in a state of cultural "vassalage" to their enemy. As new Confederate publications appeared at a surprising rate and Southerners took steps toward establishing their own system of education, cultural nationalists believed they saw the Confederacy coalescing into a true nation. Ultimately, however, Confederates proved no more able to win their intellectual independence than their political freedom.
By analyzing the motives driving the struggle for Confederate intellectual independence, by charting its wartime accomplishments, and by assessing its failures, Bernath makes provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life within the Confederacy, and the perception of Southern cultural distinctiveness.
Synopsis
During the Civil War, some Confederates sought to prove the distinctiveness of the Southern people and to legitimate their desire for a separate national existence through the creation of a uniquely Southern literature and culture. Michael Bernath follows the activities of a group of Southern writers, thinkers, editors, publishers, educators, and ministers--whom he labels Confederate cultural nationalists--in order to trace the rise and fall of a cultural movement dedicated to liberating the South from its longtime dependence on Northern books, periodicals, and teachers. Bernath makes provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life within the Confederacy, and the perception of Southern cultural distinctiveness.
Synopsis
"Make[s] provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life with the Confederacy, and the perception of cultural distinctiveness."
-The Courier"Provides meaningful insight into an understudied aspect of the Confederate experience. . . . An excellent book that deserves wide readership."
-Civil War Book Review"Makes provocative arguments about the nature of Confederate nationalism, life within the Confederacy, and the perception of Southern cultural distinctiveness."
-McCormick Messenger"It is stimulating and opening an area of the war that we do not often see. . . . A detailed look at the home front in an essential industry and the development of a nation."
-TOCWOC
About the Author
Michael T. Bernath is Charlton W. Tebeau Assistant Professor in American History at the University of Miami.