What I'm Reading Now

I am currently reading a book I originally got as an assignment in graduate school and now re-reading it for leisure rather than for study.  Scalawags:  Southern Dissenters In The Civil War And Reconstruction by James Alex Baggett is a great look at southern unionism during the Civil War.  Part of it is predictable, that most dissenters came from poorer regions of the south, usually following the spine of the Appalachian Mountains.  But what is interesting about this book is that its not a classical political narrative, but rather a broader study of Scalawags, their roots, and what they were doing on a local level.   I usually don't like bottom-up history, but in this case its done fairly effectively.  In fact, Baggatt's study is almost mathematical in its precision and study of what percent of post-war scalawags served in the Confederacy or in exile.  I can't really do it justice, but what is clear is that each state was different and Southern dissenters weren't all the same.  Factions, based on geography and ideology, emerge.  Secondly, Scalawags aren't the villains southern revisionist of the Dunning School would have you believe.  Many were true Unionists, dating back to 1860 and support for either John Bell or Stephen Douglas.  These men where rich and poor, driven by both economic and political motives.  Something people forget is that for many Southerners, there was a difference between slavery and equal rights.  While many despised slavery, they did so because of the power it gave to the planter class, it often had nothing to do with the slaves themselves.  But this book is a very surgical look, state by state, of where these folks came from, how they acted, and why they ultimately failed.  Its not too long, so it moves swiftly and its easy to follow.  Scalawags have been slimed through much of history and in the historiography of Reconstruction, but this book gives us a look into a much more diverse and fractured South that went into the Civil War and emerged from it.  I recommend it without hesitation.

Comments

[James Atticus Bowden]

Looks like another book I need to read.

East Tennessee produced whole regiments for the Union.

Like all civil wars, it was very complicated - because humans are complex beings. Even the simplest person alive - has nuanced and layered thinking.

[D.J. McGuire]

Jim,

A far better yardstick for East Tennesse's Unionism is that their friendliness to the boys in blue made Ambrose Burnside look like a decent general.

[Chris]

East Tennessee is a fascinating area. I think Andrew Johnson, their most famous son, is the most fascinating character of the whole Civil War era. How was so right and so wrong all at the same time.

[Bryan J. Scrafford]

I really like studies that illustrate how things weren't exactly like the romantic versions of history we often hear about. I don't know if you experienced this in your days at GMU, Chris, but a lot of my professors specifically assigned books that dispelled some of myths we learned back in our younger days.

This semester, for instance, I had to read Judith Van Buskirk's Generous Enemies which talked about the lives of both the patriots and loyalists in New York. It was a great read -- especially considering that it was assigned reading -- and showed how the Revolutionary War affected the civilians living in the New York area and provided a reminder that not all of the colonists were vigorously supporting General Washington and the American cause.