Join us Wednesday, January 15th for a lively discussion with author Dr. Cecily N. Zander on her latest book The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era.
The Army under Fire, explores anti-militarism during the Civil War era, focusing on the political debates over the size and use of America’s armed forces that occurred as the nation was immersed in brutal internecine warfare. Zander examines how America’s prominent politicians interacted with the military and how they often failed to understand the value of the regular soldier, often to the detriment of the war effort.
Approaching politics through the lens of the army, Zander details flourishing anti-militarism during the era and how it shaped the dominant Republican Party as it took hold of power during a period of unprecedented crisis. Many Republicans called for the war to be waged aggressively, yet held the army required to do so in great suspicion. Ideological politicians often hindered the effectiveness of the military, and the inability of Republicans to trust the armed forces hampered reconstruction efforts and any attempt to reform the failing bureaucracy overseeing Native American affairs in the West.
Through her book, Zander covers all of this and more as she offers a new and insightful perspective on the Civil War that serves as a fine addition to that period’s scholarship.
Cecily N. Zander is an assistant professor of history at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, and a Senior Fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History, where she previously held a postdoctoral fellowship. She also serves as Chief Historian for Emerging Civil War, a popular website for accessible writing about the Civil War Era. She received her PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in 2021, her MA, also at Penn State, in 2017, and her BA from the University of Virginia in 2015.
Her first book, The Army Under Fire: The Politics Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era, was published by Louisiana State University Press in 2024. She is currently working on her second book, a history of Abraham Lincoln and the American West, to be published by Liveright.
Register HERE.