War Power: Literature and the State in the Civil War North

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Philip Gould (Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English, Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English, Brown University)

War Power

Literature and the State in the Civil War North

Philip Gould (Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English, Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English, Brown University)

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English

Oxford University Press
20 August 2024

Series: Oxford Studies in American Literary History

"What happens if we reconsider the literature of the Civil War North in light of the transformation of the federal state's power? While literary scholarship about the Civil War has more generally focused on the rise of wartime nationalism, Philip Gould looks particularly at how literary works engage the subjects of censorship, propaganda, and the reconfigured meanings of ""loyalty"" and ""treason"" at a time of political crisis. During the war the Lincoln Administration shut down opposition newspapers and curtailed free expression and civil liberties protected by the US Constitution. Lincoln also suspended the writ of habeas corpus to deal with political dissenters and try to control public opinion. Early in the war, he coined the phrase ""war power"" to describe the (presumed) powers to address this crisis; his policies became controversial throughout the conflict. War Power: Literature and the State in the Civil War North considers literary production in this ""total war"" that radically changed the federal government's (and its military's) relation to traditional norms and spaces of private, domestic, and social life. Each chapter focuses on a major writer in the Civil War North's engagement with questions of identity, affect, and affiliation: Could one love the Union as one loved home and family? What were the implications for literary expression in the midst of a political culture being reshaped by censorship and propaganda? The final two chapters address the role and plight of African Americans in the Civil War and its aftermath, focusing particularly on African American military service as the supposed means by which racially disenfranchised Americans might become citizens."

By: Philip Gould (Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English Brown University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780198897354
ISBN 10: 0198897359
Series: Oxford Studies in American Literary History
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 20 August 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Philip Gould teaches at Brown University, where he is a member of the English Department. He has published books on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American and British literatures for nearly thirty years.