Battle Hymns
The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War
By Christian McWhirter
336 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 26 halftones, notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-1367-3
Published: February 2014 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-8262-7
Published: March 2012 -
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4239-8
Published: March 2012
Civil War America
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Though published songs of the time have long been catalogued and appreciated, McWhirter is the first to explore what Americans actually said and did with these pieces. By gauging the popularity of the most prominent songs and examining how Americans used them, McWhirter returns music to its central place in American life during the nation's greatest crisis. The result is a portrait of a war fought to music.
About the Author
Christian McWhirter is assistant editor for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.
For more information about Christian McWhirter, visit
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Reviews
“Recommended. Lower - and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals; general readers.”--Choice
"An extensive, descriptive account of music during the American Civil War."--Journal of American History
"Much more than a treat for lovers of good history writing and a fresh look at well-trodden fields, it is also a painful reminder of just how divided a nation we were at birth, and how those divisions live with us still."--Huffington Post Arts & Culture
“A wealth of practical information on who composed what, when, and under what circumstances. [McWhirter’s] discovery of minute details concerning the origins of popular Civil War songs constitutes a real contribution to this area of specialization.”--Civil War Book Review
“A fascinating examination of how popular songs defined and unified ideologies during the Civil War.”--Southern Register
“No historian has done more than Christian McWhirter to open our ears to Civil War music as a very powerful expression of political action.”--McCormick Messenger
Multimedia & Links
Follow the author on Twitter @CLMcWhirter.
Check out his blog, Civil War Pop.