The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South

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Bruce Levine

The Fall of the House of Dixie

The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South

Bruce Levine

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English

Random House Inc
15 April 2014

History of the Americas; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Social & cultural history; American Civil War

A national bestseller, this major, revelatory new history tells the story of the radical transformation of the American South through the eyes of the people who lived it. This is ""the Civil War as it is seldom seen...and a portrait of a country in transition...as vivid as any that has been written"" (The Boston Globe).

In this major new history of the Civil War, Bruce Levine tells the riveting story of how that conflict upended the economic, political, and social life of the old South, utterly destroying the Confederacy and the society it represented and defended. Told through the words of the people who lived it, The Fall of the House of Dixie illuminates the way a war undertaken to preserve the status quo became a second American Revolution whose impact on the country was as strong and lasting as that of our first.

In 1860 the American South was a vast, wealthy, imposing region where a small minority had amassed great political power and enormous fortunes through a system of forced labor. The South's large population of slaveless whites almost universally supported the basic interests of plantation owners, despite the huge wealth gap that separated them. By the end of 1865 these structures of wealth and power had been shattered. Millions of black people had gained their freedom, many poorer whites had ceased following their wealthy neighbors, and plantation owners were brought to their knees, losing not only their slaves but their political power, their worldview, their very way of life. This sea change was felt nationwide, as the balance of power in Congress, the judiciary, and the presidency shifted dramatically and lastingly toward the North, and the country embarked on a course toward equal rights.

Levine captures the many-sided human drama of this story using a huge trove of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, government documents, and more. In The Fall of the House of Dixie, the true stakes of the Civil War become clearer than ever before, as slaves battle for their freedom in the face of brutal reprisals; Abraham Lincoln and his party turn what began as a limited war for the Union into a crusade against slavery by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation; poor southern whites grow increasingly disillusioned with fighting what they have come to see as the plantation owners' war; and the slave owners grow ever more desperate as their beloved social order is destroyed, not just by the Union Army, but also from within. When the smoke clears, not only Dixie but all of American society is changed forever.

Brilliantly argued and engrossing, The Fall of the House of Dixie is a sweeping account of the destruction of the old South during the Civil War, offering a fresh perspective on the most colossal struggle in our history and the new world it brought into being.

Praise for The Fall of the House of Dixie

""This is the Civil War as it is seldom seen. . . . A portrait of a country in transition . . . as vivid as any that has been written.""-The Boston Globe

""An absorbing social history . . . For readers whose Civil War bibliography runs to standard works by Bruce Catton and James McPherson,

Bruce

Levine's book offers fresh insights.""-The Wall Street Journal

""More poignantly than any book before, The Fall of the House of Dixie shows how deeply intertwined the Confederacy was with slavery, and how the destruction of both made possible a 'second American revolution' as far-reaching as the first.""-David W. Blight, author of American Oracle

""Splendidly colorful . . . Levine recounts this tale of Southern institutional rot with the ease and authority born of decades of study.""-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

""A deep, rich, and complex analysis of the period surrounding and including the American Civil War.""-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

By: Bruce Levine
Imprint: Random House Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 202mm, Width: 131mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 380g
ISBN: 9780812978728
ISBN 10: 0812978722
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 15 April 2014
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Bruce Levine is the J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois. An associate editor of the Civil War magazine North and South, he has published three books on the Civil War era. The most recent of these, Confederate Emancipation- Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the Civil War, received the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship and was named one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2005 by The Washington Post.

Reviews for The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South

This is the Civil War as it is seldom seen...In these pages are few of the signature Lincoln quotes, none of the popular vignettes, and very little of the cloying key-of-D 'Ashokan Farewell' melodrama that we have come to associate with [the Civil War]. But...there is drama enough - and a portrait of a country in transition, especially the South, as vivid as any that has been written in this season of commemoration or at any time. -- The Boston Glob e An absorbing social history...Mr. Levine's book offers fresh insights into the complex reality of what most Northerners thought of as the solid South and the slow evolution of the Union crusade against slavery. -- The Wall Street Journal A compelling, valuable and eye-opening work [that] will inform and entertain the most discerning student of 'the second American revolution.' --The San Antonio Express-News In this splendidly colorful account, the author compares the old South's disintegration to 'The Fall of the House of Usher, ' where microscopic cracks in the mansion's foundation gradually widen until the building implodes. . . . A sensitive, informed rendering of the wrenching reformation of the South [told] with the ease and authority borne of decades of study. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Enlightening . . . a deep, rich, and complex analysis. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) Masterful....Levine's employment of testimonies by slaveholders, slaves, and pro-Union Southerners is effective and often poignant. --Booklist A gripping, lucid grassroots history of the Civil War that declines the strict use of great battles and Big Men as its fulcrum, opting instead for the people . . . In the tradition of James McPherson, Levine has produced a book that is a work of both history and literature. --Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Beautiful Struggle Levine illuminates the experiences of southern men and women--white and black, free and ensl