Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History Winner of the Gov. John Andrew Award (Union Club of Boston) An acclaimed, groundbreaking, and “powerful exploration” (Washington Post) of the fate of Union veterans, who won the war but couldn’t bear the peace. For well over a century, traditional Civil War histories have concluded in 1865, with a bitterly won peace and Union soldiers returning triumphantly home. In a landmark work that challenges sterilized portraits accepted for generations, Civil War historian Brian Matthew Jordan creates an entirely new narrative. These veterans— tending rotting wounds, battling alcoholism, campaigning for paltry pensions— tragically realized that they stood as unwelcome reminders to a new America eager to heal, forget, and embrace the freewheeling bounty of the Gilded Age. Mining previously untapped archives, Jordan uncovers anguished letters and diaries, essays by amputees, and gruesome medical reports, all deeply revealing of the American psyche. In the model of twenty-first-century histories like Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering or Maya Jasanoff ’s Liberty’s Exiles that illuminate the plight of the common man, Marching Home makes almost unbearably personal the rage and regret of Union veterans. Their untold stories are critically relevant today.

While women are officially barred from combat in the American armed services, in the current war, where there are no front lines, the ban on combat is virtually meaningless. More than in any previous conflict in our history, American women are engaging with the enemy, suffering injuries, and even sacrificing their lives in the line of duty. When Janey Comes Marching Home juxtaposes forty-eight photographs by Sascha Pflaeging with oral histories collected by Laura Browder to provide a dramatic portrait of women at war. Women from all five branches of the military share their stories here--stories that are by turns moving, comic, thought-provoking, and profound. Seeing their faces in stunning color photographic portraits and reading what they have to say about loss, comradeship, conflict, and hard choices will change the ways we think about women and war. Serving in a combat zone is an all-encompassing experience that is transformative, life-defining, and difficult to leave behind. By coming face-to-face with women veterans, we who are outside that world can begin to get a sense of how the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shaped their lives and how their stories may ripple out and influence the experiences of all American women. The book accompanies a photography exhibit of the same name opening May 1, 2010, at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, and continuing to travel around the country through 2011.

Sing and learn about the history of the United States with this age-old tune.

The international bestselling author of The Corsican delivers “a carefully constructed and evocative Civil War-era tale.” —John Lutz, New York Times–bestselling author When Johnny Came Marching Home is a mystery, a love story, and William Heffernan’s best book to date. The novel tells the story of three boys who grow up in rural Vermont in a seemingly indestructible friendship, then see their lives ruined as they go off to fight in America’s “great and noble war.” Trapped in a what appears to be an endless bloodbath—vividly presented with Heffernan’s meticulous historical research—the boys gradually begin to change until their close-knit childhood ties are little more than a fractured memory. By war’s end, one boy is dead, one returns a physically crippled and emotionally compromised man, and the third comes home as an unfeeling psychopath. The novel turns on the subsequent murder of the psychopath, and the offer of redemption for the wounded young man who must investigate the crime. When Johnny Came Marching Home is a story about war and how it affects the lives of all who become a part of it, both directly and peripherally. Although set during the Civil War, this book casts shadows of what we endure today and the horrors to which young soldiers are subjected. “Heffernan swings his vivid tale back and forth between past and present, war and peace—a neat tour de force he pulls off with admirable assurance.” —Kirkus Reviews “A powerful, intriguing, and complex novel about the intricacies of friendship and the devastating effects of war.” —Jonathan Santlofer, author of The Death Artist

Stepping ashore in 1635 at Boston Harbor from the ship Plain Joan, William Hickok begins this saga of the Hickok family in America. Two hundred and twenty-six years later, his descendants are embroiled in what comes to be known as the War Between the States or, more simply, the Civil War. Asa Hickok and his brothers, along with their neighbors, answer the call to arms, and this story follows their journey, as well as that of the rest of their families, as all attempt to adjust to the turmoil of changing times. Come and march with the men through the hills and valleys. Wait with the wives and mothers as they keep the home fires burning. Discover two men in love with the same woman, a wounded warrior, and the tragic deaths of friends and brothers as this account of life during those troubled times progresses. Read on and find out what happened when Johnny came marching home.

Screenplays about soldiers in three wars: the Civil War, the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan.

In 2017, the United States of America will be celebrating the Centennial of World War I. 1st Sergeant JOHN RUSSELL SMALL was a Veteran of that War. This is a true account of his experiences before, during and after the War, as written by his daughter, MARIAN SMALL, who set out at the age of 89 years to tell the story of a 20 year old boy whose love of adventure took him in 1916 to the Texas/Mexican border to join Brigadier-General John J. Pershing in the pursuit of Pancho Villa, the Mexican bandit, and then in 1918 to the trenches in France and No Man's Land. At her Dad's death in 1978, Marian inherited his collection of memorabilia which dates back 100 years to the time of his enlistment in the Ohio National Guard in 1916. Included were historic photographs and the original letters that John had written to his parents and to his sweetheart, Mary, (later his wife) as well as a 1918 Diary that he took with him when he was sent over the sea to France. John kept the Diary with him on the many nights when he led his Platoon as they marched for miles in the dark, in rain and mud, to the various trenches in No Man's Land. Even in the cootie and rat-filled trenches, with the sounds and dangers of the war going on all around him, he continued to write in the Diary and in his letters describing in detail the war as he was witnessing it. This is a compelling human interest story that recognizes the valor of the doughboys in WWI. Those who returned to the country they loved faced many hardships, including the Great Depression. The war, however, had given them the will to survive and it was through them and their stubbornness, frugality, pride and a firm belief in disciplining their children that a generation was born that, in later years, after a second World War, became know as the greatest generation....

From the award-winning author of "Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq" comes this collection that tells the stories of America's fighting women as they come home from war.

Traumatized veterans are often diagnosed as suffering from a psychiatric disorder and prescribed a regimen of psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs. But why, asks psychologist Paula J. Caplan in this impassioned book, is it a mental illness to be devastated by war or other intolerable experiences such as military sexual assault? What is a mentally healthy response to death, destruction, and moral horror? In When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home, Caplan argues that the standard treatment of therapy and drugs is often actually harmful. It adds to veterans' burdens by making them believe wrongly that they should have "gotten over it"; it isolates them behind the closed doors of the therapist's office; and it makes them rely on often harmful drugs. The numbers of traumatized veterans from past and present wars who continue to suffer demonstrate the ineffectiveness of this approach. Sending anguished veterans off to talk to therapists, writes Caplan, conveys the message that the rest of us don't want to listen—or that we don't feel qualified to listen. As a result, the truth about war is kept under wraps. Most of us remain ignorant about what war is really like—and continue to allow our governments to go to war without much protest. Caplan proposes an alternative: that we welcome veterans back into our communities and listen to their stories, one-on-one. (She provides guidelines for conducting these conversations.) This would begin a long overdue national discussion about the realities of war, and it would start the healing process for our returning veterans.