Spectacle of Grief
Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era
By Sarah J. Purcell
352 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 17 halftones, 6 maps, notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-6833-8
Published: April 2022 -
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-6832-1
Published: April 2022 -
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-6834-5
Published: February 2022
Civil War America
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Purcell shows how large-scale funerals for figures such as Henry Clay and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson set patterns for mourning culture and Civil War commemoration; after 1865, public funerals for figures such as Robert E. Lee, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Winnie Davis elaborated on these patterns and fostered public debate about the meanings of the war, Reconstruction, race, and gender.
About the Author
Sarah J. Purcell is L. F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College.
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Reviews
“An insightful exploration of an important cultural and political ritual: the public funeral. Purcell’s book is essential reading for those interested in Civil War memory.”—Gaines M. Foster, Louisiana State University
"In plumbing the depths of important public funerals, Sarah Purcell significantly advances our understanding of the complex interactions of Civil War memory in the reconstitution of the nation. A fascinating study."—William A. Blair, The Pennsylvania State University