Where My Heart Is Turning Ever

Booknews

During the Civil War and Reconstruction, popular magazines throughout the country published hundreds of short narratives that confronted or evaded the meaning of the Union's crisis. In this first volume of a projected trilogy that seeks to recover the significance of this forgotten body of writing, Diffley examines the effort of popular writers and publications to contain the disruption caused by the war and its aftermath. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gilbert Taylor

In an original attempt to connect the popular fiction with the definitions of liberty that emerged from the war, Diffley has intensively examined about 370 stories from 16 Northern and Southern periodicals. Well structured, her examination of the tales falls under three headings: Old Homestead, Romance, and Adventure. Analysis of each type stems from an exemplary tale reprinted complete (Mark Twain's "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It," J. De Forest's "Parole d'Honneur," and R. Davis' "How the Widow Crossed the Lines"). Writ large, Diffley essentially wants to explain how the destruction of slavery did not also lead to the legal emancipation and enfranchisement of women. To do so she summarizes the plots of a few stories and then traces their echoes of "gendered rhetoric" in the congressional debates over the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. The serious beginning of a projected trilogy on the subject; those prepared to purchase the sequels shouldn't miss the progenitor.