Class Year
2025
Document Type
Book Review
Abstract
Although we often hear of the Civil War’s heavy death toll, scholars rarely peer behind the numbers to chronicle the effects of these deaths on individuals, families, and the state. In Love and Duty: Confederate Widows and the Emotional Politics of Loss, Angela Esco Elder explores the diverse experience of Confederate widows and situates their experiences within the standards of nineteenth century southern society. Elder examines the ideal of widowhood as commitment to the Confederate cause by proxy of widows’ commitment to their dead husbands. Some widows used their political capital to legitimize the Confederacy, but Elder also demonstrates the variation in these narratives, as many women struggled with their material circumstances, and the emotional burden of their loss and societal expectations. [excerpt]
Recommended Citation
Matheson, Margaret G.
(2024)
"Book Review: Love and Duty: Confederate Widows and the Emotional Politics of Loss by Angela Esco Elder,"
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era: Vol. 13, Article 7.
Available at:
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/gcjcwe/vol13/iss1/7