Description
Book SynopsisTraces the origins, development, and consolidation of patriotic cultures in the United States from the latter half of the nineteenth century up to World War I, a period in which the country emerged as a modern nation-state.
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1999 "This study is not only well researched but also a sprightly written account of the development of modern American patriotism... This is truly a work 'to die for.'"--Choice "Well written ... O'Leary makes an important contribution to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to understand the vital role that rituals and symbols have played in the development of American nationalism."--Journal of Military History "[To Die For] has many thought-provoking insights... The best chapters in O'Leary's synthetic work are those on the Americanization of children and the detailed description of the GAR and WRC, in which soldiers and the women who nursed them, fed, and sewed for them readjusted to the union."--Civil War History "O'Leary's work breaks much new ground. To Die For belongs on any list of indispensable books for historians of ethnicity."--John McClymer, Journal of American Ethnic History
Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsCh. 1"To Make a Nation"3Ch. 2"Dyed in the Blood of Our Forefathers": Patriotic Culture before the Civil War10Ch. 3"When Johnny Comes Marching Home": The Emergence of the Grand Army of the Republic29Ch. 4"Living History": Crafting Patriotic Culture within a Divided Nation49Ch. 5"Oh, My Sisters!": Shifting Relations of Gender and Race70Ch. 6"Mothers Train the Masses - Statesmen Lead the Few": Women's Place in Shaping the Nation91Ch. 7"One Country, One Flag, One People, One Destiny": Regions, Race, and Nationhood110Ch. 8"Blood Brotherhood": The Racialization of Patriotism129Ch. 9"I Pledge Allegiance...": Mobilizing the Nation's Youth150Ch. 10"The Great Fusing Furnace": Americanization in the Public Schools172Ch. 11"Clasping Hands over the Bloody Divide": National Memory, Racism, and Amnesia194Ch. 12"My Country Right or Wrong": World War I and the Paradox of American Patriotism220Notes247Bibliography313Index343
