ISBN:
9780820355184
Language:
English
Pages:
xiii, 186 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Series Statement:
Uncivil wars
Uniform Title:
Physical wreck of his former self
Dissertation note:
Dissertation State University of New York at Buffalo 2016
DDC:
305.9/08097309034
Keywords:
Disabled veterans History 19th century
;
Masculinity Social aspects 19th century
;
United States History Civil War, 1861-1865
;
Veterans
;
Hochschulschrift
;
Hochschulschrift
;
Hochschulschrift
;
Hochschulschrift
;
Hochschulschrift
;
USA
;
Kriegsopfer
;
Verwundung
;
Behinderung
;
Sezessionskrieg
Abstract:
Gather the invalids -- Army of the walking sick -- The United States government is entitled to all of you -- The disabled lion of Union -- Man or mercenary -- The long, long years of misery.
Abstract:
"Disabled soldiers and veterans occupied a difficult space in the Civil War North. The realities of living with a disability were ever at odds with the expectations of manhood. Disability made it difficult for soldiers to adhere to the particular masculine standards of the Union Army, yet when soldiers were able to control their bodies in order to fit manly ideals, they were met with suspicion when they requested accommodation or support. The very definition of masculine disability was ever in dispute as soldiers, physicians, lawmakers, bureaucrats and civilians each questioned what made a war wound authentic. Further, they each pondered what role disabled soldiers should play, whether in the course of war, in the progression of medicine, or in Gilded Age politics. It is in this tension, between the demands of masculinity and the realities of disability, that we can see the murkier undercurrent of the history of disabled Civil War veterans: that even when surrounded by the triumphant cheers and sentimental sighs that praised war wounds as patriotic sacrifices, disabled Union veterans faced enormous difficulty as they negotiated a life spent walking the fine line between manliness and emasculation. Sarah Handley-Cousins's manuscript makes an important contribution to the burgeoning field of the Civil War veteran experience, Civil War medicine, masculinity, and the soldier transition to civilian life. She breaks new ground with her focus on invisible wounds, as most scholars have concentrated on amputees"--
Note:
Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2016, titled "A physical wreck of his former self" : gender and disability in the post Civil War north
,
Includes bibliographical references and index
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