Upon the Fields of Battle: Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War

The place and purpose of military history occupies a prominent position in recent debates among historians of the American Civil War. Critics of traditional military history see it as too technical, too old-fashioned, too popular, or irrelevant to the most important aspects of the war. Advocates of traditional Civil War military history view these criticisms as a misreading of its nature and potential to illuminate the war. The collected essays in Upon the Fields of Battle seek to bridge this intellectual divide by highlighting how historians are enriching the field of Civil War studies by using military history. The essays approach the period through the expansive lens of military history, grounded in both traditional and pioneering methodologies. By offering fresh areas of inquiry and demonstrating the potential of military history to provide invaluable insights, the collection seeks to realign military scholarship on the American Civil War with other scholarly avenues of inquiry.

Contributors to the volume integrate a deep analysis of military ideas and practices into social, cultural, and other contexts of Civil War studies in new and innovative ways. By reconceiving traditional approaches to subjects like battles and battlefields, practice and policy, command and culture, the environment, the home front, civilians and combatants, atrocity and memory, these essays reveal a more balanced understanding of the military aspects of the Civil War's evolving history.