American Civil War

The American Civil War Collection brings together a curated selection of titles focused on the 19th-century conflict that shaped America. Through forms ranging from biography to historical fiction, this Collection examines the roots and impact of the American Civil War, including the roles of enslavement and abolition.

The Sweetness of Water

by Nathan Harris

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Guilt, Memory, Masculinity, Race, Sexual Identity, The Past, Marriage, Daughters & Sons, Community, War, Safety & Danger, Plants

Tags Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Race & Racism, American Civil War, African American Literature, Grief & Death, US History, Love & Sexuality, Post-War Era, Military & War, World History

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This Republic of Suffering

by Drew Gilpin Faust

Publication year 2008

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Good & Evil

Tags US History, American Civil War, Military & War, Grief & Death, World History

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War is a nonfiction book published in 2008 by Drew Gilpin Faust, an American historian and the first woman to serve as president of Harvard University. A finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, This Republic of Suffering details how mass death affected the lives of survivors during and after the Civil War. Other works by Drew Gilpin Faust include Mothers of... Read This Republic of Suffering Summary

Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Publication year 1851

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Classic Fiction, American Civil War, Historical Fiction

American author Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly was published in 1852 after having originally appeared as forty weekly installments in the abolitionist periodical The National Era beginning in June of 1851. It was not intended to become a full-length novel, but its huge popularity led a publisher to contact Stowe and convince her to expand it. Though already an active abolitionist, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850... Read Uncle Tom's Cabin Summary

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

by Frederick Douglass

Publication year 1852

Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction

Themes Equality

Tags Race & Racism, US History, Politics & Government, American Civil War, Education, Education, World History, Classic Fiction

In “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” otherwise known as “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” Frederick Douglass outlines a careful argument against the institution of slavery and more specifically the Fugitive Slave Act. Weaving together ethical, religious, and sociopolitical threads of argument, Douglass points out the ironies of American values, particularly regarding the existence of an economic system based on slavery. Originally drafted and given as a speech in... Read What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Summary

Yellow Wife

by Sadeqa Johnson

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Power & Greed

Tags Historical Fiction, American Civil War, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Relationships, Trauma & Abuse, Military & War, World History

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