Commonwealth of Compromise

Civil War Commemoration in Missouri

Amy Laurel Fluker

282 pages

Published: June 2020

6 photos, 1 map

ISBN: 9780826222084

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Price: $35.00

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About This Book: In this important new contribution to the historical literature, Amy Fluker offers a history of Civil War commemoration in Missouri, shifting focus away from the guerrilla war and devoting equal attention to Union, African American, and Confederate commemoration. She provides the most complete look yet at the construction of Civil War memory in Missouri, illuminating the particular challenges that shaped Civil War commemoration. As a slaveholding Union state on the Western frontier, Missouri found itself at odds with the popular narratives of Civil War memory developing in the North and the South. At the same time, the state’s deeply divided population clashed with one another as they tried to find meaning in their complicated and divisive history. As Missouri’s Civil War generation constructed and competed to control Civil War memory, they undertook a series of collaborative efforts that paved the way for reconciliation to a degree unmatched by other states.

Acts of Civil War commemoration have long been controversial and were never undertaken for objective purposes, but instead served to transmit particular values to future generations. Understanding this process lends informative context to contemporary debates about Civil War memory.
Authors and Editors: Amy Laurel Fluker is an Assistant Professor of U.S. history at Youngstown State University. She lives in Niles, Ohio.
Praise For This Book: “Dr. Fluker’s important new work makes welcome contributions to Missouri history, the history of the American West, and the developing scholarship of Civil War memory.” —Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University, author of The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line

“Amy Fluker’s extensive research on the tenor of reconciliation in Missouri emphasizes the complexities of community healing in a state where various regional identities—Western, Southern, and Northern—collided. She illuminates the conservative, yet pragmatic approaches of her subjects, explaining how there was no single narrative dictating how Missourians understood this conflict. Commonwealth of Compromise is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil War’s legacies.”—Kristen Epps, University of Central Arkansas, author of Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras

“Fluker complicates our understanding of Civil War memory by examining a place, Missouri, that did not conform to simple categories of Lost Cause, Unionist, or emancipationist memories of the war. Instead Missourians fashioned a memory that allowed disparate groups to preserve elements of their unique memories in a larger reconciliationist framework.”—Nicole Etcheson, Ball State University, author of A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community

"An extraordinarily timely contribution to our current national dialogue over Confederacy celebrating statues, Confederate general named military bases, and the removal of the last Confedrate 'Stars & Bars' from the Mississippi state flag, Commonwealth of Compromise: Civil War Commemoration in Missouri is a work of original and meticulous scholarship that deserves being a part of every community, college, and university library, U.S. Civil War History in general, and 19th century Missouri History supplemental curriculum reading lists in particular."—Midwest Book Review

"Fluker’s writing is strong and clear; her grasp of the debates is exceptional; and she skillfully applies an impressive array of primary source materials."—Missouri Historical Review

“Commonwealth of Compromise is a wealth of knowledge, well written, and worth the read for anyone interested in Civil War commemoration and reconciliation.”—Annals of Iowa

"Civil War commemoration has become a heated issue in recent months. Names, statues, and other memorials of the Confederacy (and even some of the Union) have been questioned, defaced, hidden, or removed. Amy Laurel Fluker’s book on Missourians’ efforts to remember the Civil War could not be more timely."—Christopher M. Paine, Kansas History

"Commonwealth of Compromise hits all the right notes regarding tight editing, some appropriate photos, and excellent research."—Dave Page, The Journal of America’s Military Past

"Fluker provides a rich narrative that encourages scholars to dig deeper into the local variances and contested memories of the Civil War in American History. This book is an important contribution in 2020 and 2021."—Charles R. Welsko, The Journal of Southern History
Extras: U.S. Grant History Chat with Amy Fluker

Amy Laurel Fluker website

Ritter on Fluker, 'Commonwealth of Compromise: Civil War Commemoration in Missouri' | H-CivWar | H-Net