The North and the nation in the era of the Civil War

"In this rich collection of essays, a leading historian argues that in order to fully understand the Civil War, we need to grasp the relationship between American national identity and the values of Northern society. Northerners shaped nationalism into an ideology to justify and sustain a war against the South. Parish explores this process, focusing on politics and religion as building blocks of national identity and as sinews that connected Northerners to the Union cause."--Jacket.