Showing results for "Revolutionary War"
Les Miserables, the American Civil War, and War’s Scenes
Part of a Series While Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is probably most remembered in literature studies for its social indictment and commentary, it has dramatic military scenes woven into its pages. Notably the battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) and the fight for the Paris barricades (June 5-6, 1832) gave Hugo an opportunity to explore […]
Read more...Les Miserables, the American Civil War, and Healing from Wounds
Part of a Series In Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables, the students’ revolution fails. The barricades fall, and all of the leaders—except Marius—are killed. Marius falls wounded and unconscious, rescued by Jean Valjean. Valjean realized that his adopted daughter, Cosette, is in love with Marius and is determined to try to save the boy. In […]
Read more...‘I Loved Him More Than My Own Heart:’ The Mexican War Claims the Life of Joseph E. Johnston’s Nephew
When historians discuss Civil War generals and their role in the Mexican War, they typically use phrases like “the training ground,” “the proving ground,” or “the dress rehearsal.” They focus almost exclusively on the combat experiences and military lessons the generals acquired in the war and applied during the Civil War, glossing over the grief […]
Read more...Les Misérables, the American Civil War, and Violent Revolution
Part of a Series Throughout most of recorded history, political power has been wielded and maintained, at least in part, by force and threat of violence. Absolute rule by monarchs, chieftains, and religious leaders has been the norm, with scattered instances of republican government and democratic practices emerging from time to time in Ancient Greece […]
Read more...Les Miserables and the American Civil War: An Introduction
Over the next couple of weeks, ECW authors David T. Dixon and Sarah Kay Bierle will be sharing some emerging research that they’ve been working on. What does a novel, a Broadway musical, and European history have to do with the American Civil War? A lot more than you might guess at first glance. Published […]
Read more...Book Review: Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance before the Civil War
Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance before the Civil War. By Matthew J. Clavin. New York: New York University Press, 2023. 304pp, Hardcover, $29.95. Reviewed by Tim Talbott It is no secret that citizens in the United States and the Confederate States each claimed the heritage of the American Revolution. Soldiers wrote about that tradition […]
Read more...Thomas Cooper: Harbinger of Proslavery Thought and the Coming Civil War
Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author K. Howell Keiser Jr…. Thomas Cooper, British émigré to the United States, public intellectual, and later proslavery educator at South Carolina College, is today often overlooked when scholars discuss the maturation of proslavery thought and the coming Civil War. With his death in 1839, scholars have tended to focus […]
Read more...Civil War Surprises—Confederate Flashman: The Adventures of Henry R. H. MacIver, Part 1
Ethel Smyth, the composer and suffragette, recalled an eccentric American that left an impression on her decades after he had visited her family during the 1870s. The man had supposedly rescued her mother, Emma, from being run over by an omnibus in Paris and called on the Smyths during his visit to England. “He described […]
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