Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Chestnut, Ben Ames Williams ISBN: 0-517-18266-1 Publisher: Gramercy Pub. Date: 25 March, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Intimate account of war's effects on the homefront
Comment: The keeper of this diary writes in an intimate and honest manner about herself and those around her, and about Southern hopes for victory or at least peaceful co-existence. The diary entries draw you in to her world. You feel like you are chatting with her in the parlor or at her desk as she relates the events of the day, what famous figures she dined or went riding with, etc. Very enjoyable and poignant to read. This was a brave woman who did her best under consistently deteriorating circumstances. I found her comments about her marriage particularly surprising and honest given the standards and social mores of the time. Her husband seems emotionally remote and she chides him for being so. Definitely not given to "hero worshipping," the author gives her honest opinions - good and bad - of just about everyone around her. I recommend this book, even if you aren't a Civil War buff.
Rating: 5
Summary: An invaluable insight into the Southern Confederacy
Comment: This primary source document is one of the best windows we have into southern society during the American Civil War. Mary Chestnut was a southern aristocrat, married to the man who was the first to resign his seat in the US Senate before the war. She knew many prominent Confederate leaders well--Jefferson Davis, John Bell Hood, and Wade Hampton among them--and was acquainted with nearly all of the major players in the war (she even spent several occasions in the company of Robert E. Lee and Joseph Johnston). Because she knew so many people, she was in a position to cast a very revealing light on the war from the southern point of view.
Besides knowing so many influential leaders, Mary Chestnut also lived in both Confederate capitals--Montgomery, Alabama and Richmond, Virginia--while they were the government seats. Her husband's plantation was in South Carolina, and in fact her home in Columbia, South Carolina lay right in the path of Sherman's destructive march through the South. As such, Chestnut is poised to offer very interesting commentary on the fire that burned much of that city. Mary and her husband gave their all to the Confederacy, and lost much of what they had because of the Civil War.
Several things in this journal are unique and worthy of mention. First, Chestnut and her friends are living the high life for much of the war, having parties, dinners, and luncheons and more-or-less living it up, even when the Yankees are approaching Richmond. They live comfortable lives, and, though Mary has a very insightful perspective into the suffering of her soldiers, she often spends as much time complaining about some minor inconvenience (such as being without her maid for a week) as she does deploring the sorry state of the starved and ill-clothed soldiers. Mary does what she can, and helps in many ways, but she is not willing to give up her parties, even when her husband repeatedly begs her too.
This diary also provides a unique view of slavery. A staunch abolitionist, Chestnut hated slavery less for the cruel treatment of the slaves than for the insolent behavior of many of them. Her husband's slaves were well taken care of, and did less work than they consumed in goods. Mary recounts many horrific tales of what happened when the slaves were set free--a story of a white family going along a road and picking up a wagonload of Negro infants which had been abandoned by parents enjoying their freedom, for example. She never questions that slavery is wrong, but she does argue that Harriet Beecher Stowe's account of slavery was the exception, not the rule. This is an interesting perspective, whatever the truth of it.
All in all, this is a great diary, and a splendid resource. Thank goodness this book has been reissued. The edition edited by Ben Ames Williams contained unsatisfactory notes, including some in which Williams shamelessly engaged in self-promotion of his novel. This book is indispensable for anyone looking for primary accounts of the human aspect of the war between the states.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Civilian's Look at the War
Comment: I enjoyed this book immensely, and its tales of Antebellum southern manners being put to test by the war. Mary's insights and daily activies shed light on things I had never really considered, and highlighted the extreme poverty the South faced during and after the war. It wasn't hard reading, and I always appreciate pictures being included in a biography.
 |
Title: The Private Mary Chesnut: The Unpublished Civil War Diaries by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, C. Vann Woodward, El Muhlenfeld, Elisabeth Muhlenfeld ISBN: 0195035135 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 1984 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Mary Chesnut's Civil War by C. Vann Woodward, C. Vann Woodard, Mary B. Chestnut ISBN: 0300029799 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 1983 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
 |
Title: Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman by Charles East, Sarah Morgan, Sarah Morgan Dawson ISBN: 0671785036 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: October, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Biography (Southern Biography Series) by Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, C. Vann Woodward ISBN: 0807118044 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: All for the Union : The Civil War Diary & Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes by ELISHA HUNT RHODES ISBN: 0679738282 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 July, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
