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Dissertation Proposal: Civilian Education and the Preparation for Service and Leadership in Antebellum America, 1845 – 1860

McMurry, Philip Martin
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1246996585

Abstract Details

2009, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
The purpose of this study will be to compare and contrast the educational systems of the North and South to discover and describe the national values, the various methods used to develop leadership skills, and the relationship between antebellum education and evangelical Christianity. These concepts came together to forge a form of indoctrination that compelled some educators to leave their comfortable positions and fight in the Civil War. This study will help in our overall understanding of the values that were part of the antebellum educational experience by focusing on those who were first receivers of, then responsible for imparting, those values. Education clearly played an important role in the lives of a number of individuals who fought in the Civil War and was a necessary component in the rapid ascension of these men into prominent positions of military leadership. While this phenomenon has been documented in individual biographies such as Alice Rains Trulock’s study of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Clyde Wilson’s analysis of James Johnston Pettigrew, historical investigation to this point has not tried to address the issue of motive and influence of education among a larger number of educators and intellectuals who sought active service in the war. What was the relationship? As a test to relate education to loyalty and leadership, this dissertation will focus on nine individuals who spent a considerable period of their antebellum life as either educators or working in academic circles. Five of these individuals fought for the Confederacy and five fought for the Union. Moreover, all of these men served in the upper ranks of their respective armies and commanded, at least, at the brigade level. They are part of a larger cohort of individuals who came from educational or intellectual backgrounds, but these ten individuals to provide an adequate sample. In order to understand their values and their training, this dissertation will be examining the lives and pre-Civil War careers of Henry Lawrence Eustis, Ormsby Mitchel, John Carpenter Carter, Claudius Wistar Sears, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, James Johnston Pettigrew, James Garfield, William Flank Perry, and Francis Amasa Walker.
Jon Wakelyn, PhD (Committee Chair)
Leonne Hudson, PhD (Committee Member)
Lesley Gordon, PhD (Committee Member)
Ray Craig, PhD (Committee Member)
John Stalvey, PhD (Committee Member)
313 p.
American History; American Studies; Education History; History
education; Civil War; leadership; antebellum;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McMurry, P. M. (2009). Dissertation Proposal: Civilian Education and the Preparation for Service and Leadership in Antebellum America, 1845 – 1860 [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1246996585

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McMurry, Philip. Dissertation Proposal: Civilian Education and the Preparation for Service and Leadership in Antebellum America, 1845 – 1860. 2009. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1246996585.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McMurry, Philip. "Dissertation Proposal: Civilian Education and the Preparation for Service and Leadership in Antebellum America, 1845 – 1860." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1246996585

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.