Content area
Full text
Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front. By James Marten. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2003. ISBN 1-57607-237-1. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliographical essay. Index. Pp. xiii, 346. $85.00.
James Marten, professor of history at Marquette University, is best known for his prize-winning book, The Children's Civil War (1998), a superb study of the impact of the war on the lives of the United States's younger inhabitants. In Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front, he applies a similar skilful touch to a broader range of topics dealing with the civilian side of the conflict. The resulting book is neither a traditional narrative nor an all-encompassing survey of home-front events. Rather, it is a series of well-written, interesting case studies that focus on the lives of individuals North and South. Taken together, they successfully fulfill Marten's stated purpose of using personal stories...