Welsh Writing from the American Civil War: Sons of Arthur, Children of Lincoln

(Paperback)

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Description

Nearly ten thousand pages of writing in Welsh stemming from the American Civil War has survivedoffering contemporary readers a surprising opportunity to look at the war from an entirely new perspective. In the first study of its kind, Jerry Hunter sifts through this huge archive of letters, diaries, poetry, and prose from soldiers, civilians, and professional writers to give a fascinating account of Welsh-American reactions to the war and its context. His examination of issues such as the Welsh communitys support for abolition and the wars effects on notions of Welsh-American identity will captivate historians, literary scholars, and Civil War buffs alike.

Reviews

"... of interest both to historians and to literary critics. It comprehensively and thoroughly documents the reaction of Welsh-speaking Welsh-Americans to the looming crisis over slavery and disunion and to the War itself, using both printed and ms. sources. It also touches upon the more "belles lettres" dimension of this reaction, sometimes in ways that refer back to the poetic traditions of Wales, and sometimes in ways that interconnect with contemporary Anglophone literary responses (e.g., in the case of Harriet Beecher Stowe). ... very well written, which would suggest that it might reach out to some of the huge trans-Atlantic audience for popular Civil War history." K. P. Van Anglen, Boston University

Author Bio

Jerry Hunter is a Senior Lecturer in the Welsh Department at the University of Wales, Bangor.