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Between Campus and War: Students, Patriotism, and Education at Midwestern Universities during the American Civil War

Mujic, Julie A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334456927

Abstract Details

2012, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
The Midwest home front is one of the overlooked frontiers in American Civil War scholarship. Historians have focused on the war-torn Confederate states, New England, and the dramatic border states, while largely ignoring the experiences of Midwesterners. Outside of studies of the Copperhead peace movement, many other significant aspects of the war experience in the Midwest have failed to garner sufficient scholarly attention. This dissertation addresses this gap in the historiography by examining the war years at the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and Indiana University. As the only three viable state universities in the Midwest prior to the war, these institutions offer a valuable lens through which to investigate how students understood and shaped their relationship with the nation’s conflict. Students at these three universities experienced the war in different ways, each affected by their surrounding political environment, enrollment struggles at their schools, and the ideological perspectives of their professors. University of Michigan students crafted a justification for remaining in school that defined their educations as equally patriotic as serving in the Union military. University of Wisconsin leaders forced students there to adjust to the admission of women during the war. Indiana’s students rebelled against a repressive faculty edict passed down early in the war and launched an uprising that mimicked the South’s complaints and demands. This clash of wills lasted more than two years and caused the dismissal of several students. At each university, students who remained in school pushed their liberties to the edge during the Civil War, but almost all backed off rather than risk losing their educational opportunities. Woven together in thematic chapters, this study reveals the turbulent nature of the home front in the Midwest. Students at these state universities actively engaged with the war intellectually to enhance their educations. In doing so, they reassured themselves and the public that their presence on the home front displayed the best qualities of an American man on the rise in the nineteenth century.
Leonne Hudson (Committee Chair)
Lesley Gordon (Committee Member)
J. Matthew Gallman (Committee Member)
Patrick Coy (Committee Member)
Yoshinobu Hakutani (Committee Member)
359 p.
History
Indiana University; University of Michigan; University of Wisconsin; Midwest Home Front; Home front studies; American Civil War; Civil War Education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mujic, J. A. (2012). Between Campus and War: Students, Patriotism, and Education at Midwestern Universities during the American Civil War [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334456927

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mujic, Julie. Between Campus and War: Students, Patriotism, and Education at Midwestern Universities during the American Civil War. 2012. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334456927.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mujic, Julie. "Between Campus and War: Students, Patriotism, and Education at Midwestern Universities during the American Civil War." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334456927

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1334456927
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.