The Journal of American History is My New Favorite Journal
A Review of Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War . By Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. xxviii, 315 pp. $27.95, ISBN 978-0-691-13704-9.)
"Each year, hundreds of new books on the Civil War appear, many of them badly conceived, shabbily researched, and poorly written. They vary from studies of prostitutes who followed the Army of the Potomac to examinations of minor naval engagements in some remote area of the Gulf of Mexico to biographies of inconsequential military generals or insignificant political figures, both Northern and Southern. Almost weekly, bits and pieces of Civil War history, some of it plagiarized, show up on the Internet. In this endless dribble, rarely does a real jewel appear, but one does here: Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn's fine study of the social face of the war. With a striking amount of data, Heroes and Cowards is one of the most impressive books this reviewer has seen in years. Aimed at the broad social science research community, the book analyzes an array of military documents, soldiers' journals, and the life histories of 41,000 black and white soldiers in the Union army, compiled from service records housed in the National Archives. The book has much appeal as a model for the possibilities of qualitative social history of the Civil War and as a manual for approaching the often-tragic lives of soldiers who were caught in the epic and bloody conflict. 1
Some of the authors' conclusions appear logical. For example, after the war, soldiers from rural areas were more likely to move to a large city if they had traveled to a city during the war. In addition, observable characteristics, such as place of birth, prewar occupation, company occupation, and birthplace diversity, helped determine the probability of desertion, as did a soldier's county of origin and support for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. In studying the birthplace diversity of four black regiments and the predicted probability of their soldiers' desertion, the authors found that the "greater the birthplace fragmentation, the larger is birthplace diversity" (p. 105). Birthplace fragmentation "is measured as one minus the share of men in each company in each birthplace category, squared" (ibid.). Readers will also learn that "the coefficient of variation of age is [the] ratio of the standard deviation of age to its arithmetic mean" (p. 106). Preexisting data, such as the age, height, occupation, rank, social networks by ethnicity, and the number of friends Union soldiers had at Andersonville prison, allowed the authors to predict survival probabilities. Carefully written, with sharp analysis and new avenues for research, Heroes and Cowards is a fresh and inspiring example of social history at its best."
Jerry Thompson
Texas A&M International University
Del Rio, Texas
"Each year, hundreds of new books on the Civil War appear, many of them badly conceived, shabbily researched, and poorly written. They vary from studies of prostitutes who followed the Army of the Potomac to examinations of minor naval engagements in some remote area of the Gulf of Mexico to biographies of inconsequential military generals or insignificant political figures, both Northern and Southern. Almost weekly, bits and pieces of Civil War history, some of it plagiarized, show up on the Internet. In this endless dribble, rarely does a real jewel appear, but one does here: Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn's fine study of the social face of the war. With a striking amount of data, Heroes and Cowards is one of the most impressive books this reviewer has seen in years. Aimed at the broad social science research community, the book analyzes an array of military documents, soldiers' journals, and the life histories of 41,000 black and white soldiers in the Union army, compiled from service records housed in the National Archives. The book has much appeal as a model for the possibilities of qualitative social history of the Civil War and as a manual for approaching the often-tragic lives of soldiers who were caught in the epic and bloody conflict. 1
Some of the authors' conclusions appear logical. For example, after the war, soldiers from rural areas were more likely to move to a large city if they had traveled to a city during the war. In addition, observable characteristics, such as place of birth, prewar occupation, company occupation, and birthplace diversity, helped determine the probability of desertion, as did a soldier's county of origin and support for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. In studying the birthplace diversity of four black regiments and the predicted probability of their soldiers' desertion, the authors found that the "greater the birthplace fragmentation, the larger is birthplace diversity" (p. 105). Birthplace fragmentation "is measured as one minus the share of men in each company in each birthplace category, squared" (ibid.). Readers will also learn that "the coefficient of variation of age is [the] ratio of the standard deviation of age to its arithmetic mean" (p. 106). Preexisting data, such as the age, height, occupation, rank, social networks by ethnicity, and the number of friends Union soldiers had at Andersonville prison, allowed the authors to predict survival probabilities. Carefully written, with sharp analysis and new avenues for research, Heroes and Cowards is a fresh and inspiring example of social history at its best."
Jerry Thompson
Texas A&M International University
Del Rio, Texas
posted by Matthew Kahn at 11:31 AM
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