preview

Women Of The American Civil War

Good Essays

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War provides a look into the rarely discussed topic of women in the South during the time of the Civil War. While other authors consider the implications of slavery or military tactics from the viewpoint of men, Faust offers a refreshing take on these subjects along with others to construct a narrative that examines the role of women from a gender and class standpoint. Additionally, Faust suggests that women’s roles within the framework of war created new functions in their everyday lives. While the author does talk about the subject of women, many of her points are familiar as they are comparable to other books.
Faust clearly states her argument within the first few pages of her book, and later expands on the concept of women’s roles within the context of war in the South by stating, “The upheavals of war created conceptual and emotional as well as social dislocations, compelling southerners to rethink their most fundamental assumptions about their identities and the logic of their places in the world.” (Faust, 4) She however, does not stop there and throughout the book it is evident that class position and a non-feminist versus feminist perspective are integral in considering her thesis as well. As she moves from subject to subject within her book, the author clearly, and sometimes subtly, presents her argument while demonstrating that the Civil War did indeed change the role of women within

Get Access