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HP HIstory: Starving the South: How the Civil War was Won

HP HIstory: Starving the South: How the Civil War was Won
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  • HP HIstory: Starving the South: How the Civil War was Won

    Post #1 - May 20th, 2015, 4:47 pm
    Post #1 - May 20th, 2015, 4:47 pm Post #1 - May 20th, 2015, 4:47 pm
    Highland Park Historical Society presents

    Starving the South:
    How the North Won the Civil War


    Highland Park ---- Highland Park Historical Society host on Saturday June 20th at 2:00 PM ‘Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War,’ presented by Andrew F. Smith.

    From the first shot fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, to the last shot fired at Appomattox, food played a crucial role in the Civil War. The North mobilized its agricultural resources; the South did not. As a result, the North fed its civilians and military, and still had massive amounts of food to export to Europe, while the South starved, morale tanked, and desertions increased. The Confederacy collapsed because it couldn't feed its armies.

    Andrew F. Smith, is the author or editor of twenty-six books, including his latest Sugar: A Global History (Reaktion, April 2015). Mr. Smith was also the editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. He has written more than five hundred articles in academic journals, popular magazines and newspapers, and has served as a consultant to several television series, including the recent six-episode series, “Eat: The Story of Food,” that aired on the National Geographic Channel in the fall of 2014. For more about him, visit his website: http://www.andrewfsmith.com

    ‘Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War,’ will be presented at the Highland Park Public Library Auditorium 494 Laurel Avenue, Highland Park. For further information, please contact the Highland Park Historical Society: 847.432.7090 or hphistorical@sbcglobal.net Admission is free.

    Highland Park Historical Society’s archives have moved to the Highland Park Public Library at 494 Laurel Avenue. Archivist Nancy Webster will be available Tuesday-Friday from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm and Sunday from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm. It is best to call in advance for an appointment.
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,
  • Post #2 - May 21st, 2015, 8:13 am
    Post #2 - May 21st, 2015, 8:13 am Post #2 - May 21st, 2015, 8:13 am
    I received the following note, which you might find interesting:

    Cathy2-- Below is the Catalogue Description for our recent "Starving The
    South" course at NLU's Lifelong Learning Institute. This was a follow-up to
    a CIVIL WAR course in which we watched and discussed the Ken Burns
    documentary series, so it highlighted a portion of the bigger story.

    Class members enjoyed learning about the significance of winning a war by
    means other than shooting your enemy. It gave them an opportunity to
    explore another factor of human nature, which one of the greatest reasons
    to study history.

    Food is important to us for so many reasons other than sustenance. It was
    fun to see that you think so, too...jimd

    In STARVING THE SOUTH, we will embark on a food-related jaunt through Civil
    War history and re-examine several pivotal wartime episodes from a fresh
    point of view, by asking: "Did hunger help to defeat the Confederacy?" and
    “Is it more moral to reduce a people to hunger rather than death to subdue
    them?”. In his book of the same name, food historian Andrew Smith
    chronicles the devastation wrought by the Union blockade and the cutoff of
    Northern agricultural trade on the South, whose farm economy was based on
    cotton and tobacco. In this intriguing and readable response to the
    ever-popular question of why the South lost, Smith argues that Southern
    stomachs were even more valuable military targets than Southern armies.

    Our approach will be to examine the Civil War’s effect on the people who
    lived through it. As a corrective to blood-and-guts operational histories,
    Smith's lucid study gives war production, logistics, and home front morale
    in the Civil War the prominence they deserve. In addition to the way hunger
    depleted civilian morale, Smith recounts the deleterious effect on Southern
    armies of the Union’s destruction of farms and railroads as part of this
    important economic, social, and military study. The book is available at
    Amazon and other online booksellers.
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,
  • Post #3 - September 30th, 2015, 10:41 pm
    Post #3 - September 30th, 2015, 10:41 pm Post #3 - September 30th, 2015, 10:41 pm
    Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War
    Andrew F. Smith
    Recorded live at Highland Park Library on June 20, 2015
    Podcast
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,

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