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| Format | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Honeck, Mischa |
| Title, Analytic | Men of Principle: Gender and the German American War for the Union |
| Journal Title | Journal of the Civil War Era |
| Date of Publication | Mar. 2015 |
| Volume ID | 5 |
| Issue ID | 1 |
| Location in Work | 38-67, ill. |
| URL | |
| Abstract | The transnational legacy of 1848 and the divisive US politics of the 1850s devalued compromise, militarized German American culture, and nurtured an ideal of manhood that flaunted ethnic honor, principle, and sacrifice as its defining characteristics. This article examines gender as a discursive, performative, and affective force behind the collective rush with which German Americans took part in the Civil War. While many studies show how ethnicity, class, and race framed particular German American responses to contentious issues such as nativism, antislavery, and secession, gender remains somewhat of an analytical blind spot. This lack of attention stems in part from a false understanding of gender as a realm of human experience confined to questions of sexual identity, when in fact imagined differences between men and women play a crucial role in politics and war. Like their colleagues working in other areas, historians of German America need to examine not only how masculinity and femininity were constructed in relation to the political but also how gender operated as an instrument for legitimizing power and justifying violence. |
| Call Number | Digital file (PDF) |
| MKI Terms | Civil War, 1861-1865 -- German Americans/ Gender/ History -- 19th century/ Social aspects |