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A review by panda_incognito
Annie, Between the States by L.M. Elliott
4.0
This is one of the finest, most well-written, least-objectionable YA books I have ever read. My enjoyment level was only three stars, since the book was rather depressing, but it was good literature and told the story with careful attention to historical detail. This really brought the Civil War period to life for me, and even though I have read nonfiction books about the war, this story made the characters and circumstances far more memorable than mere facts. This book avoids most of the Civil War stereotypes that most youth fiction would fall into, and instead of being a hyped-up adventure story, this tells the heartbreakingly realistic story of a teenage girl coming into womanhood while the war's chaos was disrupting her life, threatening her family, creating tension with relatives, isolating her, and requiring great courage for her just to plug ahead in daily life.
One of the things I admired most about the book was its nuanced approach to the causes and rationale of the war. Instead of presenting the Confederacy as only Evil White Slave-Owners, it showed the reality that many of these people were fighting not because of slavery, but for state's rights: they had a greater state identity than national tie, felt that it was unconstitutional for them to be required to stay in the union, and wanted to be free from what they saw as federal tyranny. The North fought to preserve the union, not because they were opposed to slavery; many Union generals and soldiers were racist and/or owned slaves. I admired this author's willingness to delve into hard topics and present a historically accurate vision of what life was like for people affected by this messy, heartbreaking, morally mixed conflagration.
This book was very well-written and intelligent, giving pathos to an often unfairly stigmatized part of history: through this good story, we are reminded how unjust it is to remember the South exclusively as evil and slave-holding. The moral gray areas, nuances, and complex motivations of the Civil War are portrayed here with finesse, and I am very glad I had the opportunity to read this book. It has made me a more compassionate and informed student of history, and I learned more from this book than I have from traditional methods of learning history. Even though this is often a hard novel to read, I highly recommend it.
One of the things I admired most about the book was its nuanced approach to the causes and rationale of the war. Instead of presenting the Confederacy as only Evil White Slave-Owners, it showed the reality that many of these people were fighting not because of slavery, but for state's rights: they had a greater state identity than national tie, felt that it was unconstitutional for them to be required to stay in the union, and wanted to be free from what they saw as federal tyranny. The North fought to preserve the union, not because they were opposed to slavery; many Union generals and soldiers were racist and/or owned slaves. I admired this author's willingness to delve into hard topics and present a historically accurate vision of what life was like for people affected by this messy, heartbreaking, morally mixed conflagration.
This book was very well-written and intelligent, giving pathos to an often unfairly stigmatized part of history: through this good story, we are reminded how unjust it is to remember the South exclusively as evil and slave-holding. The moral gray areas, nuances, and complex motivations of the Civil War are portrayed here with finesse, and I am very glad I had the opportunity to read this book. It has made me a more compassionate and informed student of history, and I learned more from this book than I have from traditional methods of learning history. Even though this is often a hard novel to read, I highly recommend it.