A Place Called Appomattox

William Marvel

Available February 2008

Paper, 0-8093-2831-3
978-0-8093-2831-4, $22.95t
416 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, 66Illus.
American History / Civil War

 

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Revealing the class and cultural issues that shaped the Civil War through the town where it ended

In A Place Called Appomattox, William Marvel turns his extensive Civil War scholarship toward Appomattox County, Virginia, and the village of Appomattox Court House, which became synonymous with the end of the Civil War when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant there in 1865.  Marvel presents a formidably researched and elegantly written analysis of the county from 1848 to 1877, using it as a microcosm of Southern attitudes, class issues, and shifting cultural mores that shaped the Civil War and its denouement.

With an eye toward correcting cultural myths and enriching the historical record, Marvel analyzes the rise and fall of the village and county from 1848 to 1877, detailing the domestic economic and social vicissitudes of the village, and setting the stage for the flight of Lee’s Army toward Appomattox and the climactic surrender that still resonates today.

Now available for the first time in paperback, A Place Called Appomattox reveals a new view of the Civil War, tackling some of the thorniest issues often overlooked by the nostalgic exaggerations and historical misconceptions that surround Lee’s surrender.

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“William Marvel knows how to tell a good story. He is also a master at debunking myths and reinterpreting historical orthodoxy. . . . [A Place Called Appomattox] is sure to stand for generations to come as the most authoritative account of one tiny village’s collision with history.”—America’s Civil War

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William Marvel has written a dozen books about the Civil War, including Andersonville: The Last Depot (for which he won a Lincoln Prize); Lee’s Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox; and Mr. Lincoln Goes to War.