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Article: Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War.
- Article from:
- The American Enterprise
- Article date:
- January 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The American Enterprise, a national magazine of politics, business and culture (TEAmag.com). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Jeffrey Rogers Hummel; Open Court, 421 pages, $39.95
Some years after the surrender at Appomattox, Confederate General D.H. Hill said that the infantry assaults at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg, while "grand," were "exactly the kind of grandeur which the South could not afford." The Civil War proved a glorious ordeal that the North could not afford, either, Hummel contends, and he presents his case persuasively and with some originality.
The Union's share of the war's appalling cost was itself "enough to buy all the slaves and set up each family with 40 acres and a mule," the economist and historian notes. Waging total war over the issue of slavery ...