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"O'Connor has again done Boston the great favor of resurrecting its riotous and vivid past." —Martin F. Nolan, Boston Globe
An engaging look at the unique role that Boston and its inhabitants played in the Civil War.
Thomas H. O'Connor's captivating narrative follows the experiences of four distinctive and significant groups of people who formed antebellum Boston-businessmen, Irish Catholic immigrants, African Americans, and women. Interweaving vivid portraits of the Boston community with major political and military events of the Civil War, O'Connor relates how the war forever changed lives, disrupted homes, altered work habits, reshaped political allegiances, and transformed ideas.
Rich with colorful anecdotes about local figures, both renowned and long-forgotten, this is a fascinating account that will appeal to Civil War buffs, historians, and general readers alike.
"This is the best book on the history of Boston to be written in decades. . . . It is a model of storytelling in facts and time, ranking in readerly charm and narrative grip with the books of Barbara Tuchman and Doris Kearns Goodwin."—Jack Beatty, Boston Magazine
"An estimable contribution to Civil War, urban, and reform-movement history."—Kirkus Reviews
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Thomas H. O'Connor is Professor of History, Emeritus, at Boston College. He is the author of numerous books on Boston's history, including Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People; The Boston Irish: A Political History; Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal, 1950-1979; and South Boston: My Home Town-The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood, all published by Northeastern University Press. A native of South Boston, he now lives in Braintree, Massachusetts.
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