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  • Editors’ Overview

The sixtieth anniversary volume of Civil War History continues with a pair of fascinating looks at two understudied topics: veterans demobilization and the monarchist movement in the postwar South.

John Casey’s “Marked by War: Demobilization, Disability, and the Trope of the Citizen-Soldier in Miss Ravenel’s Conversion” uncovers, through a close look at John W. De Forest’s novel, a northern society fraught with anxiety over the rapid demobilization of the Union army. More than simply an early example of literary realism or sectional reconciliation, Miss Ravenel’s Conversion represents, instead, an extended meditation on the possible consequences the rapid reintegration of war-hardened veterans might have for the society, culture, and politics of the victorious North. Casey argues De Forest attempted “to restore faith in the prewar concept of the citizen-soldier,” by maintaining that “men who volunteered to defend their homes and communities were different from professional warriors.” Yet, as he shows through an innovative comparison to “war and society” scholarship, Americans’ inherited beliefs regarding regulars and volunteers remained quite powerful after the Civil War. As a consequence, Casey concludes, “the final result of this period of questioning about civil-military relations in the early postwar years was not greater understanding between soldiers and noncombatants. Instead, tension and misunderstanding between these groups quietly increased, leading to a fifteen-year period of silence.”

Andrew Heath’s “‘Let the Empire Come’: Imperialism and Its Critics in the Reconstruction South” focuses on a monarchist newspaper, the Imperialist, which Heath argues caused a “sensation” across the Union. It circulated widely in the postwar South, stirring heated discussions about the future of the republic and the ways elite white southerners might retain power and authority in the face of Reconstruction. It is true that this debate was limited, and no organized political action was realized. “But the excitement the Imperialist engendered in parts of the South,” Heath writes, “needs explaining.”

Our expanded reviews section in this issue highlights the latest works by Allen Guelzo, Bruce Levine, Earl Hess, Steven Woodworth, and H. W. Brands. Recent titles explore the political, social, and cultural aspects of race, slavery, and emancipation, and new military books explore the Peninsula, Antietam, Knoxville, and Chattanooga campaigns. [End Page 122]

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