Patriotic Gore

The classic study of literature from the Civil War, featuring critical profiles of notable figures who captured its grim reality and profound meaning.

In his introduction to Patriotic Gore, Edmund Wilson asks, “Has there ever been another historical crisis of the magnitude of 1861–1865 in which so many people were so articulate?” Regarded by many as Wilson’s greatest book, Patriotic Gore more than proves the point, brilliantly portraying the vast political, spiritual, and material crisis of the Civil War as reflected in the lives and writings of some thirty representative Americans.

Figures discussed include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, among many others.