Final Resting Places - (Uncivil Wars) by Brian Matthew Jordan & Jonathan W White (Paperback)

About the Book

"Final Resting Places brings together some of the most important and innovative scholars of the Civil War era to reflect on what death and memorialization meant to the Civil War generation-and how those meanings still influence Americans today. In each essay, a noted historian explores a different type of gravesite-including large marble temples, unmarked graves beneath the waves, makeshift markers on battlefields, mass graves on hillsides, neat rows of military headstones, university graveyards, tombs without bodies, and small family plots. Each burial place tells a unique story of how someone lived and died-and how they were mourned and remembered. Together, they help us reckon with the most tragic period of American history"--

Book Synopsis

Final Resting Places brings together some of the most important and innovative scholars of the Civil War era to reflect on what death and memorialization meant to the Civil War generation--and how those meanings still influence Americans today.

In each essay, a noted historian explores a different type of gravesite--including large marble temples, unmarked graves beneath the waves, makeshift markers on battlefields, mass graves on hillsides, neat rows of military headstones, university graveyards, tombs without bodies, and small family plots. Each burial place tells a unique story of how someone lived and died; how they were mourned and remembered. Together, they help us reckon with the most tragic period of American history.

CONTRUBUTORS: Terry Alford, Melodie Andrews, Edward L. Ayers, DeAnne Blanton, Michael Burlingame, Katherine Reynolds Chaddock, John M. Coski, William C. Davis, Douglas R. Egerton, Stephen D. Engle, Barbara Gannon, Michael P. Gray, Hilary Green, Allen C. Guelzo, Anna Gibson Holloway, Vitor Izecksohn, Caroline E. Janney, Michelle A. Krowl, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Jennifer M. Murray, Barton A. Myers, Timothy J. Orr, Christopher Phillips, Mark S. Schantz, Dana B. Shoaf, Walter Stahr, Michael Vorenberg, and Ronald C. White

Review Quotes

Final Resting Places provides multiple ruminations on a theme distinctive to the Civil War... a comparable book on any other American war is unimaginable. This collection is a worthy successor to its templates and will serve as a useful model for future sets of essays on songs of the war, volunteer regiments of the war, paintings of the war, and public monuments of the war.--Thomas J. Brown "The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association"

[Final Resting Places] seeks to highlight how individuals and social groups continuously grapple with the unfinished legacies of the war, slavery, and Reconstruction.--Claire M. Wolnisty "H-Net Reviews"

Until Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves appeared this year, Civil War enthusiasts previously found little available that provided such deep, personal, and introspective stories about the burial places of the war's participants. . . . Final Resting Places makes a valuable contribution to the expanding body of work about Civil War-Era death and memory. Not only are each of the articles extremely informative, they are well researched, and written in a style that both experts and general audiences will find educational and accessible.--Tim Talbott "Emerging Civil War"

In Final Resting Places, some of the most accomplished historians of our time reflect on the importance of the Confederate and Union cemeteries that eventually emerged and explore how monuments to the fallen have become cultural flashpoints in our struggle to come to terms with the war's root causes and legacy. It's the Civil War book you didn't know you needed until you read it. . . . In Final Resting Places, we're reminded of why it's important to memorialize those of the fallen that we can, and how doing so contributes to our greater understanding of the war and ourselves.--Drew Gallagher "Washington Independent Review of Books"

Final Resting Places contains elements that certainly will surprise readers who thought they knew everything about the American Civil War. The essays deal with more than death and dying: they reveal cogent details of how people lived, strived for various goals while here on Earth, and have been remembered.--William A. Blair "author of Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914"

About the Author

Brian Matthew Jordan (Editor)
BRIAN MATTHEW JORDAN is associate professor and chairperson of history at Sam Houston State University. He is the author or editor of five books, including Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War; The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans; and A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment's Civil War.

Jonathan W. White (Editor)
JONATHAN W. WHITE is professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams during the Civil War; Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln; and A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House.