Patriotic gore : studies in the literature of the American Civil War

by Edmund Wilson

Paper Book, 1962

Status

Available

Publication

Boston : Northeastern University Press, 1984, c1962.

Description

Critical/biographical portraits of such notable figures as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Ambrose Bierce, Mary Chesnut, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Oliver Wendell Holmes prove Wilson to be the consummate witness to the most eloquently recorded era in American history.

User reviews

LibraryThing member JBreedlove
Wilson discusses an obscure subject of an historically turbulent period and not only explains the transformation of American letters but the social and cultural underpinnings that led to the evolution of American literature. If a great book is one that is written well, interesting, and enlightening
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than this is a great book.
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LibraryThing member dragon25a
Relying heavily on primary sources, such as diaries and letters, Wilson presents the Civil War era in a more compelling fashion than many accounts that are more didactic or linked to preconceived themes and premises. His insights into what these sources reveal about the nature of war and how it is
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viewed in the moment versus revisionist history help to shed more light on how this terrible conflict occurred and how it affected people who lived through it. An excellent book.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
What strikes one at first about this fine book is its readability. From the first page, an essay on the classic Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, the prose rings true and is difficult to put down. The catalog of authors reviewed extends from Confederate ladies to soldiers who might have been lost to
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history if not included in this tome. This book belongs beside any library that includes the history of Shelby Foote or the poetry of Walt Whitman.
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