Best Selling Books by Catherine Clinton

This pioneering study of the much-mythologized Southern belle offers the first serious look at the lives of white women and their harsh and restricted place in the slave society before the Civil War. Drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of hundreds of planter wives and daughters, Clinton sets before us in vivid detail the daily life of the plantation mistress and her ambiguous intermediary position in the hierarchy between slave and master. "The Plantation Mistress challenges and reinterprets a host of issues related to the Old South. The result is a book that forces us to rethink some of our basic assumptions about two peculiar institutions -- the slave plantation and the nineteenth-century family. It approaches a familiar subject from a new angle, and as a result, permanently alters our understanding of the Old South and women''s place in it.

Chronicles the military accomplishments of African Americans who fought for the independence and preservation of the United States while struggling to be treated as equals and recognized for their valor and achievement.

Recounts the story of Fanny Kemble and her two daughters, one of whom lived with her mother in the North, while the other remained with their father in the South.

With impeccable scholarship that draws on newly available sources and research into the daily lives of slaves, "Harriet Tubman" is an enduring work on one of the most important figures in American history.

A collection of poems by African-American writers, including Lucy Terry, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Alice Walker.

A lively, comprehensive account of the struggle for women''s rights at a vital time in our national history. The American women who worked for our country''s indepence in 1776 hoped the new Republic would grant them unprecedented power and influence. But it was not until the next century that a hardy group of pathbreakers began the slow march on the road to autonomy, a road American women continue to travel today. When The Other Civil War was first published in 1984, it was hailed as a thought-provoking narrative of women''s lives, among the first books to bring together the new accomplishments of the then-infant discipline of women''s history. This revised edition offers a thoroughly updated bibliography, including not only new books and articles but also Internet sources from the past fifteen years of innovative scholarship.

In 1773, Phillis Wheatley published a book of poetry. It was a great accomplishment that made her very famous. Only a year before, Phillis had had to take a test to prove that she was the actual author of these poems, because Phillis Wheatley was a slave. Who would believe that an African girl could be the author of such poetry? Phillis did! She believed in herself, and took every opportunity she could to make her life better. She believed in the power of her words, and her writing to prove her talent, and used the power of words to change a life.

Now available in paperback is the story of Fanny Kemble, whose passionate writings against human bondage made her a heroine of the Union cause. 54 halftones & line illustrations.

Cutting through romantic myth, this captivating volume combines period photographs and illustrations with new documentary sources to tell the real story of southern women during the Civil War. Drawing from a wealth of poignant letters, diaries, slave narratives, and other accounts, Catherine Clinton provides a vivid social and cultural history of the diverse communities of Southern women during the Civil War: the heroic African-American women who struggled for freedom, the tireless nurses who faced gruesome duties, the intriguing handful who donned uniforms, and those brave women who spied and even died for the Confederacy. Photographs, drawings, prints, and other period illustrations bring this buried chapter of Civil War history to life, taking the reader from the cotton fields to the hearthsides, from shrapnel-riddled mansions to slave cabins. Clinton places these women within the context of war, illuminating both legendary and anonymous women along the way. Tracing oral traditions and Southern literature from Reconstruction through our era, the author demonstrates how a deadly mix of sentiment and fabrication perpetuates tales of idyllic plantations inhabited by benevolent masters and contented slaves. The book concludes with Clinton''s perceptive and often witty discussion of how, over the years, we continue to embrace mythic figures like Scarlett and Mammy in aspects of popular culture ranging from Hollywood epics to pancake syrup.

Long relegated to the margins of historical research, the history of women in the American South has rightfully gained prominence as a distinguished discipline. A comprehensive and much-needed tribute to southern women’s history, Half Sisters of History brings together the most important work in this field over the past twenty years. This collection of essays by pioneering scholars surveys the roots and development of southern women’s history and examines the roles of white women and women of color across the boundaries of class and social status from the founding of the nation to the present. Authors including Anne Firor Scott, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, and Nell Irwin Painter, among others, analyze women’s participation in prewar slavery, their representation in popular fiction, and their involvement in social movements. In no way restricted to views of the plantation South, other essays examine the role of women during the American Revolution, the social status of Native American women, the involvement of Appalachian women in labor struggles, and the significance of women in the battle for civil rights. Because of their indelible impact on gender relations, issues of class, race, and sexuality figure centrally in these analyses. Half Sisters of History will be important not only to women’s historians, but also to southern historians and women’s studies scholars. It will prove invaluable to anyone in search of a full understanding of the history of women, the South, or the nation itself. Contributors. Catherine Clinton, Sara Evans, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Jacqueline Jones, Suzanne D. Lebsock, Nell Irwin Painter, Theda Perdue, Anne Firor Scott, Deborah Gray White

In Stepdaughters of History, noted scholar Catherine Clinton reflects on the roles of women as historical actors within the field of Civil War studies and examines the ways in which historians have redefined female wartime participation. Clinton contends that despite the recent attention, white and black women’s contributions remain shrouded in myth and sidelined in traditional historical narratives. Her work tackles some of these well-worn assumptions, dismantling prevailing attitudes that consign women to the footnotes of Civil War texts. Clinton highlights some of the debates, led by emerging and established Civil War scholars, which seek to demolish demeaning and limiting stereotypes of southern women as simpering belles, stoic Mammies, Rebel spitfires, or sultry spies. Such caricatures mask the more concrete and compelling struggles within the Confederacy, and in Clinton’s telling, a far more balanced and vivid understanding of women’s roles within the wartime South emerges. New historical evidence has given rise to fresh insights, including important revisionist literature on women’s overt and covert participation in activities designed to challenge the rebellion and on white women’s roles in reshaping the war’s legacy in postwar narratives. Increasingly, Civil War scholarship integrates those women who defied gender conventions to assume men’s roles—including those few who gained notoriety as spies, scouts, or soldiers during the war. As Clinton’s work demonstrates, the larger questions of women’s wartime contributions remain important correctives to our understanding of the war’s impact. Through a fuller appreciation of the dynamics of sex and race, Stepdaughters of History promises a broader conversation in the twenty-first century, inviting readers to continue to confront the conundrums of the American Civil War.

Two women with similar backgrounds. Both slaves; both fiercely independent. Both great, in different ways. Harriet Tubman: brave pioneer who led her fellow slaves to freedom, larger than life . . . yearning to be free. Sojourner Truth: strong woman who spoke up for African American rights, tall as a tree . . . yearning to be free. One day in 1864, the lives of these two women came together. When Harriet Met Sojourner is a portrait of these two remarkable women, from their inauspicious beginnings to their pivotal roles in the battle for America''s future.

Traces the course of the Civil War, year by year, using profiles of important people, eyewitness accounts, and period art.

A convenient handbook of dates, names, terms, and resources as well as a highly readable overview of the pivotal role of women in a century of profound political and social change. The authors emphasize areas in which scholars have identified important changes (such as suffrage and reform), topics in which researchers are now making great strides (such as racial, ethnic, religious, and regional diversity), and innovative and relatively recent explorations (for example, work on female sexuality).

Abraham Lincoln is the most revered president in American history, but the woman at the center of his life—his wife, Mary—has remained a historical enigma. One of the most tragic and mysterious of nineteenth-century figures, Mary Lincoln and her story symbolize the pain and loss of Civil War America. Authoritative and utterly engrossing, Mrs. Lincoln is the long-awaited portrait of the woman who so richly contributed to Lincoln''s life and legacy.

When Europeans settled in the early South, they quarreled over many things--but few imbroglios were so fierce as battles over land. Landowners wrangled bitterly over boundaries with neighbors and contested areas became known as "the devil''s lane." Violence and bloodshed were but some of the consequences to befall those who ventured into these disputed territories. The Devil''s Lane highlights important new work on sexuality, race, and gender in the South from the seventeenth- to the nineteenth-centuries. Contributors explore legal history by examining race, crime and punishment, sex across the color line, and slander. Emerging stars and established scholars such as Peter Wood and Carol Berkin weave together the fascinating story of competing agendas and clashing cultures on the southern frontier. One chapter focuses on a community''s resistance to a hermaphrodite, where the town court conducted a series of "examinations" to determine the individual''s gender. Other pieces address topics ranging from resistance to sexual exploitation on the part of slave women to spousal murders, from interpreting women''s expressions of religious ecstasy to a pastor''s sermons about depraved sinners and graphic depictions of carnage, all in the name of "exposing" evil, and from a case of infanticide to the practice of state-mandated castration. Several of the authors pay close attention to the social and personal dynamics of interracial women''s networks and relationships across place and time. The Devil''s Lane illuminates early forms of sexual oppression, inviting comparative questions about authority and violence, social attitudes and sexual tensions, the impact of slavery as well as the twisted course of race relations among blacks, whites, and Indians. Several scholars look particularly at the Gulf South, myopically neglected in traditional literature, and an outstanding feature of this collection. These eighteen original essays reveal why the intersection of sex and race marks an essential point of departure for understanding southern social relations, and a turning point for the field of colonial history. The rich, varied and distinctive experiences showcased in The Devil''s Lane provides an extraordinary opportunity for readers interested in women''s history, African American history, southern history, and especially colonial history to explore a wide range of exciting issues.

What were the most important battles of the American Civil War? Discover it with this book for young readers. More than 3 million men, women, and-yes-children fought in the Civil War. And more than 600,000 of them died. For four bloody years, fighting raged from Georgia to Pennsylvania and as far west as the Mississippi River. The war tested the strength of our country, as well as the fortitude of our leaders. Learn about the battles, generals, and everyday heroes that held the nation together. ABOUT THIS SERIES: The Civil War took place in America between April 1861 and April 1865. During the four-year struggle between the North and the South, approximately 10,000 battles were fought on land and sea, leaving 620,000 dead. As a result of the war, more than three million enslaved people gained their freedom. The four books in the "Exploring the Civil War" series examine the war''s key people, places, and events, and its causes and consequences, making them the perfect tools to introduce children to one of the defining events in American history.

In July 1863, a significantbattle in the Civil War was fought. Sergeant William H. Carney, an officer of the newly formed Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment -- comprised entirely of African Americans -- led his soldiers over the ramparts of Fort Wagner, where Union soldiers charged the Confederates. As the soldiers fought, they gained strength from the stars and stripes of the American flag, Old Glory. It was Carney''s vow to never let Old Glory touch the ground, and despite several gunshot wounds, he was able to rescue the flag from the fallen bearer. Carney held the flag high as a symbol that his regiment would never submit to the Confederacy. The battle of Fort Wagner decimated the Fifty-fourth Regiment, but Carney''s heroism that night inspired all who survived. Catherine Clinton''s historically precise text paired with Shane Evans''s rich illustrations creates a remarkable account of one of the most memorable battles in Civil War history.

Traces the course of the Civil War, year by year, using profiles of important people, eyewitness accounts, and period art.