Topsy-Turvy: How the Civil War Turned the World Upside Down for Southern Children (American Childhoods Series) - Hardcover

Jabour, Anya

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1566636329 ISBN 13: 9781566636322

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 2010

Synopsis

"Oh! Such cannonading on all sides, such shrieks and groans, such commotion of all kinds!" wrote the teenaged Sue Chancellor, a Virginia planter's daughter, in May 1863. "We thought that we were frightened before, but this was far beyond everything. . . . Oh, the horror of that day!"

Sue's reactions to the Civil War around her was only one of myriad responses to the conflict from children―boys or girls, black or white, slave or free, rich or poor. They experienced the war differently from adults, and their experiences were by no means uniform. In Topsy-Turvy, Anya Jabour brings into sharp relief the way in which gender, race, slavery, and status shaped the lives of children in the American South before, during, and after the Civil War. She argues persuasively that the identities children developed in the antebellum era shaped their responses to the upheavals of the war years and their lives after the war's conclusion.

Even as Topsy-Turvy presents the Civil War as a major turning point in Southern children's lives, it also illuminates the interplay between continuity and change in the history of the American South. Because the war was fought largely on Southern soil, parts of the region became a "permanent landscape of war," and children in the Confederacy thus experienced the struggle in an especially profound and personal way. Deeply researched, abundantly illustrated, and engagingly written, the book is a major contribution to Southern history. With twenty-eight black-and-white illustrations.

About this title

About the Author

Anya Jabour is professor of history and co-director of women's and gender studies at the University of Montana, Missoula. She has also written Marriage in the Early Republic, Major Problems in the History of American Families and Children, and Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South. She lives in Missoula, MT.

Reviews

University of Montana professor Jabour explores the American Civil War through its effects on children, both black and white, from the time before the war to Reconstruction. Jabour's extensive use of journals, diaries, and records of interviews with adults who lived through the war as children enlivens her text considerably. The recollection of a former slave girl's comment to a passing white boy-"Bottom rail on top now!"-is but one example of the power of Jabour's anecdotes. Given the efficacy of these recollections, it's unfortunate that Jabour chose not to expand more on the people she includes. Instead, her writing suffers from an overtly academic style with a tendency toward obvious statements such as, "...children's attitudes toward the national conflict were shaped by their families and their identities." While the unique topic is intriguing, and the use of primary sources admirable, the ultimate result is nonetheless disappointing. 28 b&w illustrations.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1566636329
• ISBN 13: 9781566636322
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272