Mastering Wartime is the first comprehensive study of a Northern city
during the Civil War. J. Matthew Gallman argues that, although the war
posed numerous challenges to Philadelphia's citizens, the city's
institutions and traditions proved to be sufficiently resilient to
adjust to the crisis without significant alteration. Following the
wartime actions of individuals and groups-workers, women,
entrepreneurs-he shows that while the war placed pressure on private and
public organizations to centralize, Philadelphia's institutions remained
largely decentralized and tradition bound.
Gallman explores the war's impact on a wide range of aspects of life in
Philadelphia. Among the issues addressed are recruitment and
conscription of soldiers, individual responses to wartime separation and
death, individual and institutional benevolence, civic rituals, crime
and disorder, government contracting, and long-term economic
development. The book compares the wartime years to the antebellum
period and discusses the war's legacies in the postwar decade.