cover image ALL THAT MAKES A MAN: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South

ALL THAT MAKES A MAN: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South

Stephen William Berry, II, . . Oxford Univ., $28 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-19-514567-0

An expanded doctoral dissertation, this study of the motives of Southern men before and during the Civil War has a trade book's title and subtitle, but in style and substance it is really an academic monograph. Berry—assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke—argues that the pursuit of distinction ("eclat") in the eyes of a virtuous woman was a compelling motive for men to go off to war. He offers six case studies, including fire-eating secessionist Laurence Keit's pursuit of commitment-phobic Susanna Sparks, and the paradoxically named David Outlaw, a lawyer who gave up a political career in revulsion at what he saw as the sexual immorality rampant in Washington, D.C. In wealthy young Henry Dixon, a planter-class playboy, burgeoning adolescent sexuality fought (and eventually won) over his desire to worship women and led him to a case of syphilis. Nathaniel Dawson married a formidable and demanding half-sister of Mary Lincoln, who won his undying love through peace and war. Theodore Montfort was a middle-aged paterfamilias who sought distinction by enlisting, and lawyer Henry Croft went through life worshipping the memory of his fiancée, who died two weeks before the wedding. The author frames his character sketches in informative and sometimes provocative essays on sex and gender roles, and adds a melancholy note by recording that Montfort and Keit died in the war and Dixon died of syphilis. This book looks in two directions, toward gender studies and toward the Civil War, and determined readers interested in either can extract considerable value from it. (Feb.)