Songs about Rebels: The American Civil War in modern country music
Each of these songs link into what Geoff Mann has called country music’s ‘narrative of loss,’ in that they recall and reconstruct what has allegedly been lost in history – on material, emotional and personal levels. The power of these four songs lies primarily in that sense of loss, rather than in any particular political or martial themes. Perhaps then, these songs form part of what has been called a ‘mild version’ of the Lost Cause, in that they present the memory of the Civil War as a way of both commemorating their ancestors and of supporting the United States.
Continue ReadingThe United States Christian Commission and the Civil War Dead
To aid in the identification of remains, and to alleviate the distress felt by bereaved families unable to ascertain the final resting-place of their sons, the Christian Commission distributed small identifier tags a rudimentary precursor to metal dog tag.
Continue ReadingAn Assessment of the American Civil War Sesquicentennial
Does the fact that events occurred 150 years ago give them a significance that differs from any other year? Bound to it is the Civil War’s meaning in America today.
Continue ReadingStorify of our #bookhour twitter chat on EUPHORIA by Lily King
During March’s #bookhour discussion Dr. Rachel Sykes, Alice Lilly, Sima Jalal Kamali, Maxine Davies and U.S. Studies Online co-editor Michelle Green debated to what extent Lily King’s Euphoria embraces and moves away from the historical fiction genre through the novel’s structure, context and narrator. Read more about the discussion in the storify published here.
Continue ReadingRound-up of our ‘Women in America’ blog series for Women’s History Month
Our “Women in America” blog series for Women’s History Month 2015 is now drawing to an end. We would like to thank the Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) and the Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW) who joined us in putting together this diverse and exciting blog series that ran for five weeks in total and included 16 posts. Here we have collected and summarised all of those posts.
Continue ReadingFrom Millinery to Missionary: The Compelling Contradictions of writer Fanny Forester
In the final post of SSAWW’s series, Sean Trainor explores the contradictions in the life and literature of nineteenth century writer Fanny Forester.
Continue ReadingBeyond the Boundaries of Time and Text: Recovering Oral Traditions in American Women’s Writing
The penultimate post in the series, courtesy of SSAWW, is written by Corey Hickner-Johnson and examines the theme of recovery through three writers (Margaret Walker, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Kao Kalia Yang) who reclaim their own family and cultural stories and histories through fiction.
Continue ReadingKatherine Anne Porter: The Travel and Fiction of a “Roving Spirit”
Liz DePriest in the seventh post in SSAWW’s series trains our eyes on Katherine Ann Porter’s letters to explore the transnational influences apparent in her writing.
Continue ReadingImagining a Female President: Commander in Chief and the unfinished business of presidential fiction
In the sixth SHAW post Gregory Frame considers the recent fictional depiction of a female US president in Commander in Chief and asks whether this television series gives us clues as to why there has yet to be a woman elected into the Oval Office.
Continue ReadingAmerican Women Writers and Wars on Foreign Soil—Part Two
In the second post by Shelli Homer and Brianne Jaquette they discuss the poetry and fiction of American Women Writers on war, and they include a bibliography of additional primary and secondary resources.
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