Cecily Zander Wins Prestigious “First Book” Prize

Congratulations to our chief historian, Cecily Zander, whose book The Army Under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press), was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Wiley-Silver Prize from Ole Miss’s Center for Civil War Research. Established in 2011, the prize recognizes the best first book, “encouraging new and emerging scholars in the history of the American Civil War.”

The prize committee praised Cecily’s book as follows: “Cecily Zander’s The Army Under Fire rehabilitates antimilitarism as a central but underappreciated attribute of nineteenth-century American life. Well-written and persuasively argued, the book enhances our understanding of the causes of the Civil War, the ways in which Union armies fought, and why Reconstruction was, paradoxically, a limited revolution. Above all, Zander offers readers a sobering yet necessary reflection on the constraints of what could be achieved during the Civil War period. While it’s common to regret the “lost moments ” of fully realizing the goals of Union and emancipation, such an outlook can fail to illuminate the reasons why and how history unfolded as it did. Perhaps, as Zander reminds us, the wartime goals as defined by the loyal citizenry were realized after all.”

You can check out our Emerging Civil War Podcast episode about the book here. You can watch the video version of that conversation on the ECW YouTube page here.