Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War (review)

Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War. By Steven E. Woodworth. (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2000. Pp. xiii, 220. $45.00.)

For the last decade, books on the Civil War have poured forth from commercial and university presses at a surprising pace. Some offer new insights or fresh interpretations, while others simply rehash familiar stories, perceptions, and evidence. One of the best aspects of this sometimes troubling publishing trend is the wide variety of texts designed to help students better understand the issues that divided the country in 1861. The latest of this type is Steven D. Woodworth's Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War.

Part of a series on cultural conflicts issued by Greenwood Press, this text explores the sectional conflict as the manifestation of distinctly different cultures in the North and South. Woodworth develops this theme by presenting letters, diaries, and other primary sources that give readers insight into the thoughts and feelings of common people at various stages of the war. As the war begins, these documents often exude patriotism, fear, a sense of duty, and the belief that the war will be over in a short while. They also remind readers how unprepared soldiers were for the harsh realities of battle. When David Fleming, a Confederate soldier from Pulaski County, Georgia, recalled his company's first night in the field he noted that "[t]he change from soft beds and close rooms to a blanket on boards and in an open tent, did not agree very well with some of us, but nothing serious resulted from the exposure" (57). Little did these soldiers know what hardships awaited them in Virginia.

Other documents give interesting insight into life on the home front. Laura Beecher Comer, cousin of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, remained on her Columbus, Georgia, plantation when her husband went off to war. Her diary records the drudgery of daily life in the Confederacy, an existence marked by fear, depression, and increasingly restless slaves. In contrast, Augusta Kidder of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, wrote friends about parties, school, and suitors. For her, the war was something happening to other people, a distant force barely influencing her daily life. Other documents record life for Union and Confederate soldiers, experiences in the besieged city of Petersburg, the role of religion in the sectional conflict, and other subjects.

Woodworth's book is well organized, and his introductory essay is thoughtful and gracefully written. The documents represent a good cross-section of Americans who experienced the war from a variety of perspectives, though none presents the war from an African American perspective. The selections are detailed, often provocative, and placed in good historical context. Unfortunately, they are not strong enough for this book to stand alone as a supplementary text. The theme of a war as the result of a conflict of cultures is interesting but is not adequately developed. The book also lacks an adequate bibliographic essay, but it does include a useful timeline, and the last chapter reflects on some of the great historiographical questions that have shaped writing on the war. Overall, this text could be a useful addition to a Civil War course when used in conjunction with other materials, but the book's price will limit its use.