Cecily Zander, an Assistant Professor of History at Texas Woman’s University, has won the Wiley-Silver Prize for the best first book by a scholar on the Civil War for 2025. The Wiley-Silver Prize is given by The Center for Civil War Research and it is named after historians Bell Irvin Wiley and James W. Silver. The book is The Army Under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era.
According to the prize committee:
“Cecily Zander’s The Army Under Fire rehabilitates antimilitarism as a central but underappreciated attribute of nineteenth-century American life. Well-written and persuasively argued, the book enhances our understanding of the causes of the Civil War, the ways in which Union armies fought, and why Reconstruction was, paradoxically, a limited revolution. Above all, Zander offers readers a sobering yet necessary reflection on the constraints of what could be achieved during the Civil War period. While it’s common to regret the “lost moments ” of fully realizing the goals of Union and emancipation, such an outlook can fail to illuminate the reasons why and how history unfolded as it did. Perhaps, as Zander reminds us, the wartime goals as defined by the loyal citizenry were realized after all.”
Civil War Talk Radio did and interview with the author Cecily Zander.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
