McPherson: It does not seem to be fading away, as far as I am aware. Are you worried that this spike in Civil War interest from the late twentieth century is starting to wane or “gray,” and do you think any of the gains for the subject will be lost? HM: Several articles have recently highlighted that Civil War reenactments are experiencing a decline in the number of participants. So, my book, and the other items I mentioned, may have benefited from a decline in the kind of hostility toward the history of conflict and the history of warfare. I believe the strength of those feelings was beginning to soften by the end of the 1980s. Now partly, I think the rising levels of interest could be attributed to the fading of the strong antiwar sentiment, evoked by Vietnam, that existed in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. McPherson: I would not say that it was dormant-that would be putting it too strongly-but there was certainly a growth in attention. HM: Do you feel that this widespread interest in the Civil War was dormant among the American public prior to this period? Or would you care to comment on the timing of this phenomenon? The academic attention across the country toward a variety of subjects, such as slavery and the history of the South, reflected a broader movement that characterized the late 1980s and continued throughout the 1990s.
At Princeton, I experienced an increase in the number students that enrolled in my course. The History Channel also did several pieces on the Civil War during that period as well. I received a lot of invitations to lecture, go on television, requests for interviews, and so on. This interest manifested in a variety of ways. As a consequence, I think there was an increase in visitation to Civil War battlefields, as well as a growth in the sheer number of people interested in the Civil War, that followed.
BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM BOOK REVIEW SERIES
James McPherson: In conjunction with the Ken Burns series on the Civil War, which came out just a couple of years after my book, along with the release of movies like Gettysburg and Glory, together these did much to increase and awaken interest in the Civil War. What impact do you think that your research had in shaping the understanding of the Civil War in the years that have followed?ĭr. Howard Muncy (HM): Thirty years have passed since Battle Cry of Freedom’s release. The interview captured some of his thoughts related to the modern study of the Civil War, his views on various contemporary issues, and his approach to education. I asked him to reflect on the thirty years that have passed since the publication of his seminal work. Last November, I was able to sit down with Dr. Indeed, Battle Cry of Freedom is often described as the “best one-volume” account of the Civil War. And yet, the book’s impressive narrative style makes it entirely accessible for the general reader. The book, which earned the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in History, spans over eight hundred pages.
McPherson’s bold 1988 narrative, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, examines the social, political, and economic factors related to antebellum America and the Civil War. Few individuals have influenced the understanding of an entire historical topic more than Princeton University historian Dr.
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