Through the Heart of Dixie

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316 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 20 halftones, 2 maps, notes, bibl., index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-3340-4
Published: February 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-1778-7
Published: September 2014

Civil War America

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Sherman's March, cutting a path through Georgia and the Carolinas, is among the most symbolically potent events of the Civil War. In Through the Heart of Dixie, Anne Sarah Rubin uncovers and unpacks stories and myths about the March from a wide variety of sources, including African Americans, women, Union soldiers, Confederates, and even Sherman himself. Drawing her evidence from an array of media, including travel accounts, memoirs, literature, films, and newspapers, Rubin uses the competing and contradictory stories as a lens for examining the ways American thinking about the Civil War have changed over time.

Compiling and analyzing the discordant stories around the March, and considering significant cultural artifacts such as George Barnard's 1866 Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, and E. L. Doctorow's The March, Rubin creates a cohesive narrative that unites seemingly incompatible myths and asserts the metaphorical importance of Sherman's March to Americans' memory of the Civil War. The book is enhanced by a digital history project, which can be found at shermansmarch.org.

About the Author

Anne Sarah Rubin is professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the author of A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868.
For more information about Anne Sarah Rubin, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“An engrossing exploration of the ways in which the march has been recounted and understood over the years.”--The Wall Street Journal

“A valuable contribution to the memory literature.”--Blue & Gray Magazine

"An exceptionally creative and ambitious study, like nothing else that I can think of in the field of Civil War history."--Civil War Monitor

"Drawing on an impressive range of source material, Rubin considers a wide variety of views and actors, from participants and witnesses to novelists and filmmakers."--America's Civil War

“One of the more innovative books which has been published this year on the Civil War and one of the more innovative books on the March to the Sea.”--Gettysburg Chronicle

“An excellent addition to the flourishing literature on Civil War memory, and scholars and Civil War enthusiasts will find it interesting.”--H-Net Reviews