Sherman's March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era) - Hardcover

Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown are professors of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee. They are co-authors of The Myth of Nathan Bedford Forrest (2005) and The Mosby Myth: A Confederate Hero in Life and Legend (2002). Caudill is author of Darwinian Myths: The Legends and Misuses of a Theory (1997) and co-author of The Scopes Trial: A Photographic History (2000). Ashdown is editor of James Agee: Selected Journalism (1985, 2004) and author of A Cold Mountain Companion (2004).

This book is a valuable resource. The breadth of coverage―history, literature, poetry, song, stage, and screen―is extremely impressive. (Civil War Book Review)

Having read the first two excellent books—on Forrest and Mosby—in this unique trilogy, I opened this final book with high expectations of a masterful achievement. In both fact and myth, Sherman was and clearly still is multifaceted. On the eve of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, Caudill and Ashdown eloquently render a multifaceted portrait of a hell of a man. (David Madden, founding director of the United States Civil War Center)

As is often true in our history, the mythology of major events has a history of its own, shaping our visions of the past. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown have traced this Civil War scar in Southern memory to its roots in reality, in memoirs, in histories, in the press, and in mythology, basing their story on rich primary sources and portraying events with the same elegant language they have used in other important Civil War interpretative histories. (Donald L. Shaw, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

A major contribution to Civil War historiography. . . cannot be overlooked. Recommended for all history collections—Civil War, social, or intellectual—in all libraries. (Library Journal)

Integral to the study of public history and collective memory to deliver a cutting-edge analysis. (America's Civil War)

Perhaps the most impressive thing about mass media is their ability to shape historical memory and imagination. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory is one of the best examples now available that shows how this phenomenon works in transforming a region's understanding of itself. Professors Caudill and Ashdown are to be highly commended for this first rate work. (Bruce J. Evensen, DePaul University)

Interesting and exceptionally well-sourced. . . . Thoroughly enjoyable. It provides a worthy new addition to the now burgeoning field of scholarship about media and public memory and would be useful not only to historians but in graduate seminars for students of both history and mass communication. (Journalism History)

Recommended. (Book Review Digest)

The images of Gen. William T. Sherman's men marching through Georgia seemingly remain burned into the American historical memory. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown here provide their solidly researched look at how the myth and legends of the march have been created. Works such as this provide an important starting place for further study of those myths that still march on. (James Klotter Journal of American History)

Caudill and Ashdown have constructed a useful book, filled with examples from humor and popular culture that reveal Sherman's place in history and memory. Such memory studies pertaining to the Civil War enable us to better grasp the complexities of this defining moment in American history. (Journal of Southern History)