In Love and Duty, Angela Esco Elder provides a much-needed analysis of grief's political significance in the Civil War-era South. Through a close examination of white Confederate widows as individuals, Elder encourages the reader to acknowledge grief's myriad forms of expression, reaching a much deeper understanding of grief and widowhood as a result. Noting that “the political was personal, and the personal political,” Elder reveals grief's important political function to the Confederacy and the Lost Cause movement (5). In doing so, the author stresses the enormous cultural and political influence of the South's war widows. Grounded in an impressive body of manuscript evidence, Love and Duty marks an important step in our evolving understanding of widowhood and emotions in the nineteenth-century United States.
In their methodology, the author draws inspiration from various scholars researching the links between women and the Confederate state, including Stephanie McCurry, Thavolia Glymph, and especially Victoria Ott. Elder situates their discussion of this topic in emotional history, building upon work from Michael Woods, Christopher Hager, and James Broomhall, who all explored connections between private and public emotional worlds in the nineteenth-century United States. Using William Reddy's theory of emotional regimes, Elder argues that Confederate widows’ grief was an emotional resource that, if offered, gave a “powerful endorsement” to the Confederacy (3). Equally, if withdrawn, the effect could be a destabilizing indictment of the South. In combining women's history with this interpretation of Reddy's approach, Elder crafts an overarching methodology that will appeal to anyone interested in nineteenth-century emotional expression.
The author begins their analysis with an overview of love and widowhood in the antebellum era, outlining the patterns of mourning that emphasized the elderly widow rather than the young. As Elder writes, “young widows existed more as an exception, not a rule” (39). That would change with the mass casualties wrought by the Civil War, creating hundreds of thousands of young widows. Chapter 2 explores the impact of uncertainty on the household structures that were designed to prepare women for widowhood. Again, Elder emphasizes the varied experiences of women in the South, noting disruptions to everyday domestic life and the trend for some women to begin mourning even before their husbands had died.
Elder's later chapters deal with emotional responses to widowhood when it was confirmed. Chapter 3 recounts the difficult moment when a woman received the news of her husband's death. Southern women were expected to embody a stoic ideal of patriotic widowhood, confirming the value of their individual household's sacrifice. Many women, however, “would fail to wear the mask or accept the sacrifice,” unable or unwilling to conform to the emotional regime (92). Chapters 4 and 5 explore those who did not meet expectations. By exploring the individual and human nature of grief, Elder focusses the narrative on grief as widows themselves experienced it. Importantly, Elder juxtaposes this with the broader societal expectation that widows would express grief through patriotic outlets. Widowhood brought with it financial challenges, leading many to seek support in ways that challenged the Confederacy's emotional regimes, from prostitution to swift remarriage. After the Confederate surrender, emotional and practical burdens continued to impact the South's war widows. In the final chapter, Elder highlights grief's diversity in the postwar years, demonstrating that white women could not and did not “seamlessly work together to create a Lost Cause,” undercutting more general assumptions that women universally rallied to restore southern pride (132). Indeed, many women heavily involved in constructing the Lost Cause were in fact married, as widows found their grief reinterpreted by others to fit a nationalistic ideal. Elder's work, therefore, draws a distinction between the real and imagined Confederate widow, complicating our understanding of southern women and the inconsistent role that emotions play in constructing collective identities. The latter point will be of particular interest for those studying emotions in the nineteenth-century United States. Elder's work neatly complements an existing body of literature from scholars such as Broomhall and Sommerville, which examines the ideals and realities of masculine emotions in the Civil War South.
Through this overarching methodology that connects women's studies with emotional history, Elder has constructed a nuanced argument, ripe with possibilities for future research. As Elder accepts, “one book cannot encompass all aspects of widowhood” (11). Therefore a logical next step would be to expand Elder's thesis to different geographical regions. Widowhood in the Civil War North would present its own emotional and political challenges, and undoubtedly warrants a companion study to complement Elder's work. Likewise, the border states, which Elder does briefly discuss at various points, require further in-depth research that examines the fluctuating political and cultural identities that defined their wartime experiences. Scholars might also consider the importance of class and wealth in more detail. As Elder notes, most written records were produced by those with the necessary “time and financial security” (11). What available detail there is about working-class widows nonetheless deserves its own close attention to further highlight the differing experiences of Civil War widows.
In a sweeping and readable study, Elder has shed new light on women's history and the broader history of emotions in the Civil War era, whilst never losing sight of the individual human stories at play. As politicians continue to use widowhood to construct and employ political capital, Elder's call to interpret widowhood as a complex and individual experience is a constructive and timely one. The attention to detail, brisk prose, and novel methodology make Love and Duty essential reading for anyone interested in the Civil War South and the history of emotions.
