In The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1970) and The
Confederate Nation (1979), Emory Thomas redefined the field of Civil War
history and reconceptualized the Confederacy as a unique entity fighting
a war for survival. Inside the Confederate Nation honors his enormous
contributions to the field with fresh interpretations of all aspects of
Confederate life -- nationalism and identity, family and gender,
battlefront and home front, race, and postwar legacies and memories.
Many of the volume's twenty essays focus on individuals, households,
communities, and particular regions of the South, highlighting the sheer
variety of circumstances southerners faced over the course of the war.
Other chapters explore the public and private dilemmas faced by
diplomats, policy makers, journalists, and soldiers within the new
nation. All of the essays attempt to explain the place of southerners
within the Confederacy, how they came to see themselves and others
differently because of secession, and the disparities between their
expectations and reality.