Blood and Irony

“A prodigious work of scholarship.” — American Historical Review

“An important addition to what is, in many ways, a thin literature on the culture of the New South. . . . Instructors will find it a useful text in courses on the New South, southern women’s history, and southern literature.” — Journal of American History

“Should prove attractive to scholars representing a wide range of academic interests. . . . Should be added to all library collections and support courses on or research about the Civil War, women’s history, or public history.” — South Carolina Historical Magazine

“The great strength of Blood and Irony is Gardner’s analysis of the development of the Lost Cause myth, and she certainly succeeds in demonstrating how postwar reality informed interpretations of the past. Her focus on women’s contribution to the creation of a new southern identity, and their active involvement in writing and publishing war stories throws up interesting questions about how women viewed themselves and their role in the postwar South. . . . Blood and Irony is a welcome addition to a new body of scholarship that explores the important contribution that women made to the creation of a cultural identity in the postwar South.” — Civil War Book Review

“Gardner provides a thoughtful explanation of white women’s efforts to shape the story of our nation’s past.” — Arkansas Historical Quarterly

“Gardner’s encyclopedic survey and extensive archival work bring together better-known texts of the era, such as writings by Margaret Mitchell and Ellen Glasgow, with unpublished and lesser-known works, including diaries and journals of Confederate widows.” — American Literature

“Cogently argued and beautifully written. . . . Blood & Irony is an important book that will undoubtedly stimulate much debate in the years to come.” — Georgia Historical Quarterly

“[Gardner goes] beyond the overtly racist implications of white women’s literature to reveal subtleties in their critiques of the region. White women writers raised questions not only about the place of women in the South but also about social relations more generally. Gardner accomplishes her task with remarkable sensitivity, examining the complexities of women’s writings without losing sight of their reactionary tendencies, particularly the whitewashing of the region’s history of slavery and the justification for racial inequality and white supremacy.” — Laura F. Edwards, The North Carolina Historical Review

“Gardner’s work clearly illuminates the ways in which myriad women writers built the edifice upon which Scarlett O'Hara eventually stood. . . . A welcome addition to the growing scholarship on women and the creation of historical memory.” — Civil War History

“A very readable account of the Southern female writers who for decades after the Civil War entertained American readers.” — Washington Times