Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865-1900

by Stuart McConnell

Book Overview

The Grand Army of the Republic, the largest of all Union Army veterans' organizations, was the most powerful single-issue political lobby of the late nineteenth century, securing massive pensions for veterans and helping to elect five postwar presidents from its own membership. To its members, it was also a secret fraternal order, a source of local charity, a provider of entertainment in small municipalities, and a patriotic organization. Using GAR...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807820253
• ISBN13: 9780807820254
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating look at the Union veterans in postwar USA!

I highly recommend this book on a Civil War-related topic thatis very little known. The organization and activities of the Union veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic offer a host of lessons for us today. It is an intriguing look at the effects of the Civil War on those who fought it, as well as their goalsand efforts to shape postwar society. My favorite portion was the section on the efforts of the veterans to inculcate patrioticvalues among the youth of the Gilded Age. Well worth the time toexpand your knowledge of this aspect of the Civil War!