Catherine Clinton's Lecture on Women in the War

I attended Catherine Clinton's lecture on women during the Civil War, and here are some of my thoughts.
Clinton almost immediately began with a jab at Ken Burns' widely acclaimed documentary The Civil War. She criticized the work for its lack of perspective of women. To her, the female perspective was on the "cutting room floor." To Clinton, females played a very important role in the war, much more than Burns' film would have you believe. This certainly caught the attention of the audience, as most were probably Ken Burns fans.

I thought this was slightly shortsighted of Clinton. Burns' doc, while very lengthy, was on the topic of the Civil War, and most of the. While his depictions of women during the time may have been somewhat contrived, Clinton's comments felt like a full-scale repudiation of the work. Perhaps this was not intended, and maybe I'm biased, but it felt like too much.

She then began discussing the extent of the impact that women made on the Civil War. She discussed the reality women faced living in a male dominated society. Almost chief among her stories, she included anecdotes about cross-dressing females, posing as men to fight on the battlefield. She also discussed, among other things, the lives of slave women, including a very well-timed historical association with Michelle Obama.

Clinton's lecture was highly informative, as I had no idea of females cross-dressing as male soldiers during war time. She used vivid language to carry her lecture. It was enjoyable.

Something from class that we learned was the odd view of many Americans that freed blacks would result in white women running away with them. I thought it was interesting that Clinton didn't talk about this at all, because it was so dominant in political talk of the time.