Civil War History

Civil War History 49.1 (2003) 75-77

Making and Remaking Pennsylvania's Civil War. Edited by William Blair and William Pencak. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. Pp. 352. Cloth $35.00.)

This worthwhile addition to American Civil War scholarship addresses two key areas of research—studies of the Northern home front and regional histories. Although recent scholarship has greatly expanded our knowledge of race, class, gender, and culture during the war, it is essential to continue to test our assumptions and generalizations. Blair and Pencak's compilation does that, showing that essays about one state, Pennsylvania, can inspire similar scholarship in other states and further shape our understanding of the multifaceted conflict that is the Civil War. [End Page 75] These essays, covering topics such as material culture, gender, race, identity, and memory, examine how social aspects of the war in Pennsylvania were intertwined with the state's military participation.

The first two chapters emphasize the issue of nationalism and patriotism in Pennsylvania. Christian B. Keller's essay about Pennsylvanians who fought for the Confederacy asserts that these individuals' loyalty was influenced by factors much more complex than their place of birth. Elizabeth Milroy argues that the displays of patriotic artwork at Philadelphia's 1864 Great Central Sanitary Fair influenced the way the city's elites defined cultural space. Both essays challenge us to look beyond normal definitions of loyalty and identify individual motivations. Likewise, Rachel Filene Seidman's work on ladies aid societies and Christina Ericson's look at gender roles during the Battle of Gettysburg both consider the expansion of women's roles during this time of crisis. Ericson's essay in particular suggests a complexity in men's and women's roles during the battle that has been ignored in favor of the celebration of romantic figures like John Burns and Jennie Wade.

The contrast between historical evidence and memory is a theme that runs throughout the essays in this book. Nowhere is it stronger, however, than in Henry Pisciotta's study of the Charles Avery Monument in Pittsburgh. Pisciotta demonstrates how the monument offers various interpretations of emancipation, some of which do not correspond to Avery's actual opinions and actions. Eric Ledell Smith's editing of an African American soldier's letters demonstrates the value of this type of primary source in gaining perspectives on slavery and emancipation. Although interesting, it is hard to ascertain what larger meaning Smith would like us to acquire from these letters. The most impressive contribution is Barbara A. Gannon's essay on black and white cooperation in the Grand Army of the Republic. Gannon shows how white and black veterans shared a common memory of the war as a conflict between freedom and slavery, a notion that did not survive in the white community after the turn of the century.

The Battle of Gettysburg is also a subject ripe for interpretations concerning memory and the tendency to romanticize the past. Jim Weeks's thoughtful treatment of Gettysburg's rapid rise to fame uncovers rampant commercialism in the town from the very moment of the battle, which has led to accusations of opportunism with which the town still lives. The market forces Weeks confronts throughout the history of the battlefield are apparent today, although they are now disguised as tourism and preservation. Mark Thistlewaite's chapter on Peter F. Rothermel's 1870 painting The Battle of Gettysburg informs readers of another way people consumed the history of the battle.

The final chapter in the compilation is Willaim Blair's commentary on the movie Gettysburg as a depiction of "the brothers' war." Blair appropriately examines the popular image of Northerners and Southerners as "siblings caught in a tragic family quarrel that, once resolved, could be smoothed over with a handshake"(246). However, it is unclear at points whether Blair is analyzing the movie or Michael Shaara's book, The Killer Angels, on which the movie was based. This essay is by far the shortest [End Page 76] and least focused, and raises more questions in the mind of the...