CFP Essays for an anthology

RA Harris Discussion

Call for papers: Caroline E. Janney and James Marten call for proposals for essays in an anthology with the working title Buying and Selling the Civil War.  Each essay will provide a case study of a product, experience, or idea related to remembrance of the war; of products acknowledging the outcomes of the war; or of products marketed specifically to Americans who participated in the war (veterans, for instance, or widows). 

Authors will be asked to identify not only the products being marketed and consumed, but also the meaning of those products: How did sellers “pitch” their products, and what did buyers believe they were buying? Among the possibilities are status and recognition in their communities; a sense of redemption for war-time failures; ways to connect family histories to national history; forms of investment in the future; ways to recover from war-time traumas; hopes of making a political statement. In many cases, buyers and sellers may have placed different meanings on the same products. Although the time period to be covered is generally the Gilded Age, the editors will consider a broader time period.

Essays will be limited to 6000 words (not counting notes). Authors will be encouraged to provide one or two illustrations for each essay. Direct queries to Carrie at cjanney@purdue.edu or Jim at james.marten@marquette.edu.

Proposals should include a one-page abstract and a brief CV.  Send them tojames.marten@marquette.edu no later than May 15, 2018. First drafts of selected essays will be due in early 2019.