Daniel E. Sutherland - Böcker

Few artists were as determined to shape their own legacy as James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Fiercely protective of his reputation, he denounced would-be biographers, published The Gentle Art of Making Enemies as his own autobiography, and destroyed works he thought unworthy of his genius, declaring more than once that “to destroy is to survive.” Yet despite his efforts at control, Whistler’s legacy has proved as unpredictable and contentious as the man himself.In this engagingly written book, Daniel E. Sutherland traces the turbulent fortunes of Whistler’s reputation since his death in 1903. He examines the friends, relatives, and acquaintances who first shaped the story of Whistler’s life and art and shows how three defining issues—the cultivated image of the dandy, his reputation for quarrelsomeness, and the origins of the nocturnes—came to dominate critical debates. Along the way, Sutherland challenges entrenched assumptions by questioning and often correcting the reasons behind Whistler’s controversial standing. He also demonstrates how these narratives have evolved through successive generations of critics, curators, and scholars, while seeping into popular culture as well.Offering the first sustained study of Whistler’s contested posthumous reputation, this book makes a significant contribution to the field of nineteenth-century art and biography. It will appeal to art historians, museum professionals, and scholars of modernism, as well as any admirers of Whistler eager to understand how and why he remains such a polarizing figure today.

Discover the extraordinary woman behind one of the most famous images of motherhood in Western artJudged by the portrait Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 (1871), painted by her son James McNeill Whistler, Anna Whistler (1804–1881) appears to have been a pious, unassuming, domestic woman. This characterization, however, is far from the whole truth. Anna was born in the slaveholding South, raised principally in Brooklyn, New York, and resided for many years in both Russia and Great Britain, and her life was filled with adventure and excitement. The authors’ unprecedented use of her private diaries and correspondence results in a crisp biographical rendering that reveals a resilient, vibrant, bright, and deeply engaged woman. In her writings, Anna made shrewd observations about the social, cultural, artistic, and political issues of her era, which was one of enormous and near-constant change. She knew and interacted with an astonishing array of people, from Russian peasants and American farmers to Robert E. Lee and Giuseppe Mazzini. She also raised one of the finest artists of the nineteenth century. As her son made his way in the art world, Anna became his unofficial agent, promoting his work, managing his finances, and advising him on the best opportunities for success. That he, in turn, should immortalize her as a global celebrity and international icon of motherhood was only appropriate.

A major new biography of James McNeill Whistler, one of most complex, intriguing, and important of America’s artistsThis engaging personal history dispels the popular notion of James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) as merely a combative, eccentric, and unrelenting publicity seeker. The Whistler revealed in these beautifully illustrated pages is an intense, introspective, and complex man, plagued by self-doubt and haunted by an endless pursuit of perfection in his painting and drawing.  “[Sutherland] seeks to get behind the public Whistler . . . never judging or condescending to his subject. . . . The portrait of Whistler that emerges is complex and mysterious . . . a measured and scholarly account of an extraordinary life.”—Ruth Scurr, Wall Street Journal  “The first comprehensive biography of Whistler in at least a generation. . . . Sutherland skillfully captures Whistler’s ambition, tenacity, and insecurity and presents his life in a narrative that does justice to both his triumphs and his failures.”—Eleanor Jones Harvey, American Scholar

Focusing on a little-known yet critical aspect of the American Civil War, this must-read history illustrates how guerrilla warfare shaped the course of the war and, to a surprisingly large extent, determined its outcome.The Civil War is generally regarded as a contest of pitched battles waged by large armies on battlefields such as Gettysburg. However, as American Civil War Guerrillas: Changing the Rules of Warfare makes clear, that is far from the whole story. Both the Union and Confederate armies waged extensive guerrilla campaigns—against each other and against civilian noncombatants. Exposing an aspect of the War Between the States many readers will find unfamiliar, this book demonstrates how the unbridled and unexpectedly brutal nature of guerrilla fighting profoundly affected the tactics and strategies of the larger, conventional war. The reasons for the rise and popularity of guerrilla warfare, particularly in the South and lower Midwest, are examined, as is the way each side dealt with its consequences. Guerrilla warfare's impact on the outcome of the conflict is analyzed as well. Finally, the role of memory in shaping history is touched on in an epilogue that explores how veteran Civil War guerrillas recalled their role in the war.

All too often, histories of Civil War battles concentrate on the events of the battle, ignoring the larger campaign and undervaluing the battle's impact on subsequent events. This work reveals and explains the vital connection between two epic battles: Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The staggering Confederate victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are seldom treated as part of a coherent strategy, and they have never been presented as a single campaign. Yet, analyzed as a whole, the two battles go far to explain Lee's military success. At the same time, the failures and bungling that characterized Federal efforts are more intelligible when seen in the light of the political and military circumstances that thrust unprepared and inadequate Union commanders into predicaments they little understood. The eastern theater in the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863 witnessed sudden shifts in northern command and strategy and increasing political intervention. Lincoln despaired of McClellan and sought a general more willing to fight; whatever the ultimate result of this search, it provided opportunities the canny Lee was willing and able to exploit.

This title covers the boon and bane of irregular warfare. The American Civil War is famous for epic battles involving massive armies outfitted in blue and gray uniforms, details that characterize conventional warfare. ""A Savage Conflict"" is the first work to treat guerrilla warfare as critical to understanding the course and outcome of the Civil War. Daniel Sutherland argues that irregular warfare took a large toll on the Confederate war effort by weakening support for state and national governments and diminishing the trust citizens had in their officials to protect them.Sutherland points out that early in the war Confederate military and political leaders embraced guerrilla tactics. They knew that 'partizan' fighters had helped to win the American Revolution. As the war dragged on and defense of the remote spaces of the Confederate territory became more tenuous, guerrilla activity spiraled out of state control. It was adopted by parties who had interests other than Confederate victory, including southern Unionists, violent bands of deserters and draft dodgers, and criminals who saw the war as an opportunity for plunder. Sutherland considers not only the implications such activity had for military strategy but also its effects on people and their attitudes toward the war. Once vital to southern hopes for victory, the guerrilla combatants proved a significant factor in the Confederacy's final collapse.

While the Civil War is famous for epic battles involving massive armies engaged in conventional warfare, A Savage Conflict is the first work to treat guerrilla warfare as critical to understanding the course and outcome of the Civil War. Daniel Sutherland argues that irregular warfare took a large toll on the Confederate war effort by weakening support for state and national governments and diminishing the trust citizens had in their officials to protect them.

The story of Culpeper County, Virginia, is a unique one in Civil War history. Nestled in one of the South’s most strategically important locations, it was occupied by the Northern army, recaptured by the Confederacy, and finally ceded to the North. Told largely through diaries, papers, and correspondence of residents, common infantrymen, and such eminent personalities as Robert E. Lee, Walt Whitman, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, and Stonewall Jackson, all of whom spent time in Culpeper, this story wonderfully captures both the intimacy and grandeur of war. Seasons of War moves from the primitive squalor of filled hospitals and the daily indignities of a soldier’s life to the editorials of a local newspaperman and the struggles of women and children left to the mercy of an occupying and hostile army. While famous Culpeper visitors like Lee and Whitman compose dispatches and lyric poetry, private citizens mourn their dead and defend their homes. Here are the very personal aspirations, losses, and sometimes gruesome banalities of an unforgettable American war. Sutherland’s account of the war is unlike any other. Both a military and a social history, it details the life of a single Confederate community without losing sight of the titanic struggle of a nation divided. It allows readers to join the councils of Lee and Grant while sharing the letters of young couples separated by war. We frolic with the fun-loving Jeb Stuart, experience the confused terror of men in battle, feel the anguish of civilians surrounded by contending armies, observe the tensions between neighbors with different loyalties, and sense the joy of liberated slaves. Written in a daring style that thrusts readers into the vortex of war, Seasons of War tells the story of a place and a nation. It is a tale by turns heroic and mean, hopeful and bleak, humorous and grave. It is a story of the American people—Northern and Southern, white and black, free and unfree—at the defining hour of their history.