When we talk about the Civil War, we often describe it in terms of
battles that took place in small towns or in the countryside: Antietam,
Gettysburg, Bull Run, and, most tellingly, the Battle of the Wilderness.
One reason this picture has persisted is that few urban historians have
studied the war, even though cities hosted, enabled, and shaped Southern
society as much as they did in the North.
Confederate Cities, edited by Andrew L. Slap and Frank Towers, shifts
the focus from the agrarian economy that undergirded the South to the
cities that served as its political and administrative hubs. The
contributors use the lens of the city to examine now-familiar Civil
War-era themes, including the scope of the war, secession, gender,
emancipation, and war's destruction. This more integrative approach
dramatically revises our understanding of slavery's relationship to
capitalist economics and cultural modernity. By enabling a more holistic
reading of the South, the book speaks to contemporary Civil War scholars
and students alike--not least in providing fresh perspectives on a
well-studied war.