In this comprehensive and innovative Civil War history, R. Douglas Hurt traces the decline and fall of agriculture in the Confederate States of America, the backbone of the Southern economy, which, alongside military strength, Southerners believed would ensure their independence. In a sweeping...

"How did the Civil War and the emancipation of the South's four million slaves reconfigure the natural landscape and the farming economy dependent upon it? An important reconsideration of the Civil War's role in southern history, Unredeemed Land uncovers the environmental constraints that shaped...