Gender Matters Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Making of the New South

What role did gender play in the secession crisis? How did it affect the loyalties of the civilian population during the Civil War? In what ways did it influence the formation of the Ku Klux Klan? How did it affect labor conflict in the postwar textile industry? Why was the first woman U.S. senator from the South? What role did sexuality and gender play in the explosion of racial violence in the late nineteenth century? These questions and many others concerning the critical role that gender played in the major events of the nineteenth-century South and the nation more generally are addressed in this fascinating collection of essays by renowned historian LeeAnn Whites. Together these pieces argue that gender matters not only in the lives of individuals, but also along racial and class lines across the social order. This provocative collection is ideal for classroom use, as it covers a broad chronological scope and range of events in Southern history.

LeeAnn Whites is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia