Sherman's March in Myth and Memory: : The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era Edward Caudill Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Sherman's March in Myth and Memory

Description

General William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea" in 1864 burned a swath through the cities and countryside of Georgia and into the history of the American Civil War. As they moved from Atlanta to Savannah—destroying homes, buildings, and crops; killing livestock; and consuming supplies—Sherman and the Union army ignited not only southern property, but also imaginations, in both the North and the South. By the time of the general's death in 1891, when one said "The March," no explanation was required. That remains true today.

Legends and myths about Sherman began forming during the March itself, and took more definitive shape in the industrial age in the late-nineteenth century. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory examines the emergence of various myths surrounding one of the most enduring campaigns in the annals of military history. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown provide a brief overview of Sherman's life and his March, but their focus is on how these myths came about—such as one description of a "60-mile wide path of destruction"—and how legends about Sherman and his campaign have served a variety of interests.

Caudill and Ashdown argue that these myths have been employed by groups as disparate as those endorsing the Old South aristocracy and its "Lost Cause," and by others who saw the March as evidence of the superiority of industrialism in modern America over a retreating agrarianism.

Sherman's March in Myth and Memory looks at the general's treatment in the press, among historians, on stage and screen, and in literature, from the time of the March to the present day. The authors show us the many ways in which Sherman has been portrayed in the media and popular culture, and how his devastating March has been stamped into our collective memory.

Chapter 1: Sherman
Chapter 2: Industrial Strength Sherman: the Man, the Idea, the Myth
Chapter 3: Sherman Among the Historians
Chapter 4: Still Marching: Sherman in Literature
Chapter 5: Long Remember: Sherman on Stage and Screen, in Song and Poetry
Chapter 6: In Sherman's Tracks
Chapter 7: The March and Its Myth

Product details

Published	Jun 27 2008
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	240
ISBN	9780742550278
Imprint	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Series	The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Edward Caudill

Author

Paul Ashdown

This book is a valuable resource. The breadth of coverage-history, literature, poetry, song, stage, and screen-is extremely impressive.

Civil War Book Review
Having read the first two excellent books—on Forrest and Mosby—in this unique trilogy, I opened this final book with high expectations of a masterful achievement. In both fact and myth, Sherman was and clearly still is multifaceted. On the eve of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, Caudill and Ashdown eloquently render a multifaceted portrait of a hell of a man.

David Madden, founding director of the United States Civil War Center
As is often true in our history, the mythology of major events has a history of its own, shaping our visions of the past. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown have traced this Civil War scar in Southern memory to its roots in reality, in memoirs, in histories, in the press, and in mythology, basing their story on rich primary sources and portraying events with the same elegant language they have used in other important Civil War interpretative histories.

Donald L. Shaw, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A major contribution to Civil War historiography. . . cannot be overlooked. Recommended for all history collections—Civil War, social, or intellectual—in all libraries.

Library Journal
Integral to the study of public history and collective memory to deliver a cutting-edge analysis.

America's Civil War
Perhaps the most impressive thing about mass media is their ability to shape historical memory and imagination. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory is one of the best examples now available that shows how this phenomenon works in transforming a region's understanding of itself. Professors Caudill and Ashdown are to be highly commended for this first rate work.

Bruce J. Evensen, DePaul University