Title: The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation
Subtitle: The Decade of the 1890's and the Establishment of America's First Five Military Parks
Description: The 1890s, argues Timothy B. Smith in his new book, represented the climax of battlefield preservation in America. But what makes this decade so important? This decade was the perfect time for the establishment of these national parks. Five Civil War battlegrounds—at Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Antietam, and Vicksburg—were commemorated as national sites during this time. Just past the bitterness and racial tensions of Reconstruction and prior to the explosive growth brought on by the Second Industrial Revolution, the time was right for the war's veterans from both sides to come together, in a spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood, to lead the efforts to open the parks. As yet unmarred by development, these battlefield sites were preserved mostly intact, just how the veterans would have remembered them. To date, they represent the country's finest preserved battlefields. Smith's book is the first to look at the process of battlefield reservation as a whole.  He focuses on how each of these sites was established and the important individuals—the congressmen, the former soldiers, the veteran commissioners—who were the catalysts for the creation of these parks. The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is a watershed book about an essential period in the history of battlefield preservation and will be of interest to any reader who wishes to have a better understanding how such preservation efforts were initiated.
Subjects: History, Battlefields, Government policy, Military parks, Conservation and restoration, National parks and reserves, Cultural policy, Champs de bataille, Conservation et restauration, Histoire, Parcs militaires, Politique gouvernementale, Parcs nationaux, Nationalpark, Sezessionskrieg, Schlachtfeld, Denkmalpflege, Denkmalschutz, Führer, Kriegsschauplätze, Historische Stätte, Slagfält, Bevarande och restaurering, Historia, Nationalparker, Amerikanska inbördeskriget 1861-1865, National parks and reserves, united states, United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, battlefields, Maryland, history, Gettysburg national military park (pa.), Tennessee, history, Missouri, history, United states, cultural policy
Places: United States, Antietam National Battlefield (Md.), Vicksburg National Military Park (Miss.), Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (Ga. and Tenn.), Gettysburg National Military Park (Pa.), Shiloh National Military Park (Tenn. and Miss.)
Time periods: Civil War, 1861-1865