It took me a long time to finish this book. I'm not sure exactly when I started, but it in the middle of packing and it stayed with me through moving. I didn't do a lot of reading then.
This is a scholarly work; another reason for me to read it slowly. I never thought much about what Southern women went through during the Civil War, though I did read Gone with the Wind several times. I was intrigued by Faust's use of diaries, letters. memoirs, and poetry as sources.
Women, especially among the Southern elite, found that their traditional role of ladylike subservience ill-prepared them for managing plantations and slaves and for providing for their families. Faust records how their patriotic fervor gave way to feelings of abandonment, fatigue, and frustration as the war dragged on.
I enjoyed reading about battles on women's home front rather than men's battlefront.
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