{"title":"Philip N Racine","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"living-a-big-war-in-a-small-place-book-philip-n-racine-9781611172973","title":"Living a Big War in a Small Place","description":"Most of what we know about how the Civil War affected life in the Confederacy is related to cities, troop movements, battles, and prominent political, economic, or military leaders. Far less is known about the people who lived in small Southern towns remote from marching armies or battles. Philip N. Racine explores life in one such place--Spartanburg, South Carolina--in an effort to reshape the contours of that great conflict.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy 1864 life in most of the Confederacy, but especially in rural towns, was characterized by scarcity, high prices, uncertainty, fear, and bad-tempered neighbors. Shortages of food were common. People lived with constant anxiety that a soldiering father or son would be killed or wounded. Taxes were high, inflation was rampant, good news was scarce and seemed to always be followed by bad. The slave population was growing restive as their masters' bad news was their good news. Army deserters were threatening lawlessness; accusations and vindictiveness colored the atmosphere and added to the anxiety, fear, and feeling of helplessness. Often people blamed their troubles on the Confederate government in faraway Richmond, Virginia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRacine provides insight into these events through personal stories: the plight of a slave; the struggles of a war widow managing her husband's farm, ten slaves, and seven children; and the trauma of a lowcountry refugee's having to forfeit a wealthy, aristocratic way of life and being thrust into relative poverty and an alien social world. All were part of the complexity of wartime Spartanburg District.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50394114883857,"sku":"CIN1611172977G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50394119274769,"sku":"CIN1611172977VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1611172977.jpg?v=1763475189"},{"product_id":"unspoiled-heart-book-philip-n-racine-9780870498343","title":"Unspoiled Heart","description":"A dramatic real-life adventure story, Unspoiled Heart chronicles the Civil War experiences of Charles P. Mattocks, a major in the Union Army of the Potomac. From 1863 to 1865, Mattocks kept a diary in which he meticulously recorded the everyday details of army politics and camplife and the excitement of commanding men in battle. At the tender age of twenty-three, this Bowdoin College graduate took successive command of the Seventeenth Maine and the famous First United States Sharpshooters. With an unspoiled heart, he fearlessly led his troops in the crucial battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as in several minor skirmishes. During the Battle of the Wilderness, Mattocks was captured, imprisoned by the Confederates, and escaped into the mountains of North Carolina, where he was recaptured by Confederate Indians. After nine months in different Confederate prisons, Mattocks was exchanged in time to participate in the Battle of Sayler's Creek, in which his bravery earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. Mattocks's journals are rich with insightful commentary, including details about the officers' prisons in Georgia and the Carolinas and about the anti-Confederate slaves and white Unionists who aided him in his escape. Of particular interest are his invaluable descriptions of Sayler's Creek, the last great battle involving the Army of the Potomac and one that has often been neglected in Civil War literature.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50464247218449,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50464247841041,"sku":"CIN0870498347G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0870498347.jpg?v=1750787244"},{"product_id":"gentlemen-merchants-book-philip-n-racine-9781572336162","title":"Gentlemen Merchants","description":"Gentlemen Merchants preserves the correspondence between members of two wealthy slaveholding merchant families, the Gourdins and the Youngs in nineteenth-century Charleston, South Carolina. Because the correspondence lasts over forty years, the letters provide a significant record of historical Southern themes. Plantation-born urban dwellers, the correspondents comment deeply and widely on their own family history, religion in the South, slavery and race, business, secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction.    Gentlemen Merchants offers a fresh perspective on the Old South's elite slaveholders from the vantage point of commercial offices, docks, and wharves instead of the rural plantation. These prominent Charleston families grew wealthy through commercial trading of Sea Island and upland cotton, rice, and wine.    Charleston emerges as a main character in these letters as the discrepancy between the wealthy upper class and working-class immigrants becomes more pronounced. There are also letters from family members who traveled widely for business and pleasure. They recount travel adventures in England and France, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, and at Niagara Falls.    The Gourdins and Youngs lived in material comfort for over three decades and fought to preserve their way of life, the basis of which was made possible by slavery. The family was one shaped by privilege and destroyed by war. When the world changed as a result of the Civil War, the family members were left penniless.    It is unusual that both sides of this correspondence have survived, making this collection an extraordinary primary source for historical research. Historically minded general readers will also enjoy the perspective on the urban South that these letters provide.    Philip N. Racine published numerous articles and books about southern history, including Piedmont Farmer. He is currently the William R. Kenan Professor of History at  Wofford College, where he has taught since 1969.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51332928733457,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332931354897,"sku":"CIN1572336161VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1572336161.jpg?v=1751088171"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-philip-n-racine.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}