Sentimental bonds: Suffering, sacrifice and benevolence in the Civil War North.
- Resource Type
- Theses
- Authors
- Clarke, Frances M.
- Source
- Dissertation Abstracts International; Dissertation Abstract International; 62-10A.
- Subject
- History, United States
- Language
- English
Summary: This study demonstrates the central importance of sentimentality in framing the experiences of both men and women. In addition, it offers a revised interpretation of both wartime voluntarism and gender relations. Challenging the association of voluntary efforts with state centralization and social control, I argue that most volunteers were primarily concerned with the moral oversight of Union troops. Moreover, I examine the way Northern women viewed their war-work less as a chance to thwart gender conventions than as an opportunity to assert the public importance of sentimental domesticity.