The Divided Union (review)

Book Reviews101 The Divided Union. By J. G. Randall and David Donald. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1961. Pp. 572. $6.50.) in 1937 professor j. G. Randall published his The Civil War and Reconstruction . Immediately it became a standard work, widely used as a textbook for students, an introduction for the general reader, and extensively employed as a reference by advanced students and even specialists. Although its popularity resulted partly from its being the only thing of its kind available, the book won its reputation largely because of its merits. It was comprehensive in scope, balanced in judgment, massive in factual information, and its bibliographical aids were invaluable to beginners and buffs alike. Yet the best of books become dated with the passage of time. This process was particularly true of Professor RandaU's book, dealing as it did with a period that in the last quarter of a century has been subjected to intensive research. It was the decision of the publishers and of Mrs. Randall to revise the book. The job of revision was fittingly entrusted to David Donald, a student of Randall's and a scholar in his own right. The volume under review comprises Donald's version of the war years. Another and larger textbook edition under the original title incorporates a treatment of Reconstruction. Of the present volume, it would be accurate to say that it is largely a work of revision rather than of rewriting. A comparison with the original reveals surprisingly few changes. (In the textbook edition, however, Mr. Donald has rewritten substantial portions of the section on Reconstruction.) It is true that Donald has added some new material on such subjects as plantation economy, the Confederate supply services, naval developments, and the condition of labor. But essentially he has attempted, and with good success, to bring the work in line with recent scholarship. The findings and opinions of writers who have appeared since 1937 are fused into the narrative; where these opinions are at variance. Donald has balanced one against the other. Only in the beginning chapters is the organization significantly altered. Chapter IH in the original edition, The Yankee World," becomes I and "A Growing Nation" in the new version. I and II in the original, dealing with the Old South and slavery, become II and III. The later chapter on the Southern home front is broken into two chapters. These arrangements are logical and improve the flow of the story. The effect of Donald's revision, however, is to give the book a new emphasis . In the four introductory chapters, for example, the antislavery movement is handled more sympatheticaUy than in the original edition. The plantation myth receives more critical analysis. U. B. Phillips' contention that race consciousness was the central theme of Southemism is omitted, and in general the views of Stampp on slavery prevail over those of Phillips. Moreover, the influence of Southern extremists is balanced against that of Northern abolitionists. For the war years, Donald is more critical than Randall of Jefferson Davis and McClellan and less critical of the Radical Republicans and their works. In part, these Donaldian departures represent opinions based on recent research that was not available to Randall. Yet they also demonstrate an important difference in the cultural outlooks of teacher and student that results from the drift of events in the last twenty years. Perhaps the best way to reveal this difference is to contrast in paraUel quotations their treatment of the Emancipation Proclamation: RANDALLRANDALL-DONALD On the other hand, it compUcated On the other hand, it compUcated military adjustments between the United States and the Confederate States (e.g., with reference to the exchange of prisoners), opened the way to Southern retaliation, launched an angry wave of resentment in the South at what was considered a capital grievance, and gave to Lincoln 's prestige a setback among certain elements of Northern opinion which proved a serious loss to the President and his party. military adjustments between the United States and the Confederate States (e.g., with reference to the exchange of prisoners), opened the way to Southern retaliation, launched an angry wave of resentment in the South at what was...