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Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War
No American needs to be told that the Civil War brought the United States to a critical juncture in its history. The war changed forever the face of the nation, the nature of American politics, the status of African-Americans, and the daily lives of millions of people. Yet few of us understand how the war transformed gender roles and attitudes toward sexuality among American citizens. Divided Houses is the first book to address this sorely neglected topic, showing how the themes of gender, class, race, and sexuality interacted to forge the beginnings of a new society.
In this unique volume, historians Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber bring together a wide spectrum of critical viewpoints--all written by eminent scholars--to show how gender became a prism through which the political tensions of antebellum America were filtered and focused. For example, Divided Houses demonstrates that the abolitionist movement was strongly allied with nineteenth-century feminism, and shows how the ensuing debates over sectionalism and, eventually, secession, were often couched in terms of gender. Northerners and Southerners alike frequently ridiculed each other as "effeminate": slaveowners were characterized by Yankees as idle and useless aristocrats, enfeebled by their "peculiar institution"; northerners were belittled as money-grubbers who lacked the masculine courage of their southern counterparts.
Through the course of the book, many fascinating subjects are explored, such as the new "manly" responsibilities both black and white men had thrust upon them as soldiers; the effect of the war on Southern women's daily actions on the homefront; the essential part Northern women played as nurses and spies; the war's impact on marriage and divorce; women's roles in the guerilla fighting; even the wartime dialogue on interracial sex. There is also a rare look at how gender affected the experience of freedom for African-American children, a discussion of how Harriet Beecher Stowe attempted to distract both her readers and herself from the ravages of war through the writing of romantic fiction, and a consideration of the changing relations between black men and a white society which, during the war, at last forced to confront their manhood. In addition, an incisive introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson helps place these various subjects in an overall
historical context.
Nowhere else are such topics considered in a single, accessible volume. Divided Houses sheds new light on the entire Civil War experience--from its causes to its legacy--and shows how gender shaped both the actions and attitudes of those who participated in this watershed event in the history of America.
In this unique volume, historians Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber bring together a wide spectrum of critical viewpoints--all written by eminent scholars--to show how gender became a prism through which the political tensions of antebellum America were filtered and focused. For example, Divided Houses demonstrates that the abolitionist movement was strongly allied with nineteenth-century feminism, and shows how the ensuing debates over sectionalism and, eventually, secession, were often couched in terms of gender. Northerners and Southerners alike frequently ridiculed each other as "effeminate": slaveowners were characterized by Yankees as idle and useless aristocrats, enfeebled by their "peculiar institution"; northerners were belittled as money-grubbers who lacked the masculine courage of their southern counterparts.
Through the course of the book, many fascinating subjects are explored, such as the new "manly" responsibilities both black and white men had thrust upon them as soldiers; the effect of the war on Southern women's daily actions on the homefront; the essential part Northern women played as nurses and spies; the war's impact on marriage and divorce; women's roles in the guerilla fighting; even the wartime dialogue on interracial sex. There is also a rare look at how gender affected the experience of freedom for African-American children, a discussion of how Harriet Beecher Stowe attempted to distract both her readers and herself from the ravages of war through the writing of romantic fiction, and a consideration of the changing relations between black men and a white society which, during the war, at last forced to confront their manhood. In addition, an incisive introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson helps place these various subjects in an overall
historical context.
Nowhere else are such topics considered in a single, accessible volume. Divided Houses sheds new light on the entire Civil War experience--from its causes to its legacy--and shows how gender shaped both the actions and attitudes of those who participated in this watershed event in the history of America.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Catherine Clinton
58 books75 followersProfessor of history at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Specializes in American history, African-American history, the Civil War, and women's history. Previously taught at Brandeis and Harvard universities. Born in 1952, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Studied sociology and history at Harvard, earned a master's degree from Sussex and a doctorate from Princeton.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 28, 2026
Unfinished review:
1. The Civil War as Crisis in Gender
- Slavery doomed itself. When white men put their own offspring in the kitchen and the cornfield and allowed them to b sold into bondage as slaves and degraded them as another man's slave
- In exchange for her subordination, he promised that he would use his position to promote her own interests more effectively than she could ever hope to do in her own right
- we poor women have no name or existence of our own, we pass silently down the stream of time without leaving a single trace behind - we die unknown
- They feared for their power not only over their slaves but over their women as well
- Whether the four million now held in bondage are men and entitled to the rights and liberty of men
- Not only a test of the white man's courage on the battlefield, it was also a test of his dependents' loyalty on with this courage was built
- It left only the subordination of southern white women
- his manhood and independence was relational
2. The politics of yeoman households in south carolina
- Virtually unlimited right of an indepndent man to mastery over his own household
3. Soldiering, manhood and coming of age: a northern volunteer
4. No desperate hero: manhood and freedom in a union soldier's experience
5. I's a Man Now: Gender and African American Men
6. Arranging a Doll's House: Refined Women as Union Nurses
7. Acting her Part: Narratives of union women spies
8. Missing in Action: Women of the confederacy
9. Women and guerilla warfare
10. altars of sacrifice: confederate women and the narratives of war
11. since the war broke out: the marriage of Kate and William McLure
12. The children of jubilee: African American Childhood in Wartime
13. Wartime dialogues on illicit sex: white women and black men
14. Warwork and the crisis of domesticity in the north
15. writing out the war: harriet beecher stoe's averted gaze
16. intemperate men, spiteful women and jefferson davis
17. Reconstructing freedwomen
18. Reshaping the bonds of womanhood: Divorce in reconstruction north carolina
1. The Civil War as Crisis in Gender
- Slavery doomed itself. When white men put their own offspring in the kitchen and the cornfield and allowed them to b sold into bondage as slaves and degraded them as another man's slave
- In exchange for her subordination, he promised that he would use his position to promote her own interests more effectively than she could ever hope to do in her own right
- we poor women have no name or existence of our own, we pass silently down the stream of time without leaving a single trace behind - we die unknown
- They feared for their power not only over their slaves but over their women as well
- Whether the four million now held in bondage are men and entitled to the rights and liberty of men
- Not only a test of the white man's courage on the battlefield, it was also a test of his dependents' loyalty on with this courage was built
- It left only the subordination of southern white women
- his manhood and independence was relational
2. The politics of yeoman households in south carolina
- Virtually unlimited right of an indepndent man to mastery over his own household
3. Soldiering, manhood and coming of age: a northern volunteer
4. No desperate hero: manhood and freedom in a union soldier's experience
5. I's a Man Now: Gender and African American Men
6. Arranging a Doll's House: Refined Women as Union Nurses
7. Acting her Part: Narratives of union women spies
8. Missing in Action: Women of the confederacy
9. Women and guerilla warfare
10. altars of sacrifice: confederate women and the narratives of war
11. since the war broke out: the marriage of Kate and William McLure
12. The children of jubilee: African American Childhood in Wartime
13. Wartime dialogues on illicit sex: white women and black men
14. Warwork and the crisis of domesticity in the north
15. writing out the war: harriet beecher stoe's averted gaze
16. intemperate men, spiteful women and jefferson davis
17. Reconstructing freedwomen
18. Reshaping the bonds of womanhood: Divorce in reconstruction north carolina
November 25, 2022
Absolutely fascinating take! Loved it!
June 23, 2024
First step towards uniting gender and military history.
October 7, 2026
This was a great book that really made me think about the dynamics of gender during the Civil War, which is something that most people don’t think about. However, what’s holding this book back from 5 stars is that some of the sections seem to be a little more supportive of the confederacy. Like it’s cool that women were taking on the responsibility of the plantations while the owner was fighting, but that seems like they’re celebrating the confederate women more than they should be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2012
I've marked this as "read, grad student," which usually means that I read it in grad school in preparation for class in one week when I had a lot of other things going on - ie: did not actually read from over-to-cover, but skimmed for information. In this case, however, I don't remember reading it at all. Possibly it was assigned as an alternate or supplemental reading I never did. I do remember the class it was for, which was an odd mixture or gender and military history of Europe and the US. It was odd because American historians so rarely talk to Europeanists, and military historians rarely talk to the gender crowd (for the record: I am a European historian with an interest in gender). I even remember the discussion that came about probably in connection with this book, because I asked the Americanists to tell me what the Civil War was actually about - was it really slavery that had prompted it or was that just propaganda? Their answer was that it was slavery, but not out of any idealistic rationale, just because the two economic (slave and "free"/wage-based) systems could no longer operate side-by-side.
That doesn't say much about this book, which I went over a bit before sitting down to write. It is rather old (1992), and from a time when gender history was associated with social history, rather than cultural. The result feels to me even more alien than most American history texts. There is some interesting stuff here, though, less in the discussion of masculinity (which was still in its infancy in gender studies at the time) and more in the pieces on "women at war." Particularly the articles by Lyde Cullen Sizer and George Rable caught my eye as having some thought-provoking material. I do think rather too many of the essays are essentially case studies, and the book suffers heavily from the lack of an index. Twenty years later, this is probably only of interest to specialists looking for a particular essay.
That doesn't say much about this book, which I went over a bit before sitting down to write. It is rather old (1992), and from a time when gender history was associated with social history, rather than cultural. The result feels to me even more alien than most American history texts. There is some interesting stuff here, though, less in the discussion of masculinity (which was still in its infancy in gender studies at the time) and more in the pieces on "women at war." Particularly the articles by Lyde Cullen Sizer and George Rable caught my eye as having some thought-provoking material. I do think rather too many of the essays are essentially case studies, and the book suffers heavily from the lack of an index. Twenty years later, this is probably only of interest to specialists looking for a particular essay.
November 3, 2016
This is a very insightful collection of essays exploring the impact of and changes to gender relations just prior to, during, and following the American Civil War. It fits nicely in the school of history that explores ordinary lives and societal changes. Topics include differing perceptions between Northern and Southern views of gender roles, how those perceptions and views changed as a result of the conflict, and, of course, how issues of race entwined with issues of gender.
February 6, 2008
Hmm, intellectual discourse about biological sex roles and the Civil War. Essays by leading historians gathered for your pleasure. Well let me tell you it is really hit and miss and unless you have an unnatural obsession with the Civil War this is not the book for you. Pick and choose was my reading methodology of choice.
March 29, 2008
I thought this was a good collection of essays that truly addresses gender (as opposed to just including women), and provides a mix of essays based on race and region.
Read
October 3, 2012Interesting points of view of life during the Civil War.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews