A review by jone_d
What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War by Chandra Manning

5.0

As a white Southern man, who identifies as an anti-racist this was a tough read. While as a child I think I was taught that the war was about Black enslavement or more likely "a war to free the slaves," that the North was good and the South was bad, by the time I was a teen-ager, I became curious about, then came to embrace, and continued to cling to view that most white Southerners who fought on the side of the Confederacy believed they were just defending a "home" that they loved. I sought out stories of white Southerners who resisted Black enslavement or who fought guerrilla style against the Confederacy. However, Manning makes a convincing and sobering argument that for white people in the South, particularly white men, Black enslavement was so central to their identity that they fought for the Confederacy not simply to "defend a home they loved," but to defend the institution of Black enslavement and their identity as white men.

I also found Manning's explanation of how the Great (religious) Awakening played out in the North and South differently very interesting. Not only was it interesting to think about how that effected white and Black American's view of the Civil War but also how it effect politics in the US today.

I really like this book. I think it is an important read for all white folks in the US whether or not you have an interest in the Civil War.