Karen abbott civil war weapons
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Women are conspicuously absent in most Civil War chronicles. With a few notable exceptions—Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, Mary Todd Lincoln—female figures largely appear in the literature as bit players, if they make an appearance at all. Author Karen Abbott seeks a welcome redress to this neglect with Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, an exciting and extremely well-written, if deeply flawed account of some ladies who made a significant contribution to the war effort, north and south.
The concept is sound enough. Abbott focuses on four very different women and relates their respective stories in alternating chapters. There is Belle Boyd, a teenage seductress with a lethal temper who serves as rebel spy and courier; Emma Edmonds, who puts on trousers to masquerade as Frank Thompson and joins the Union army; Rose O’Neal Greenhow, an attractive widow who romances northern politicians to obtain intel for the south; and, Elizabeth Van Lew, a prominen
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History in the Margins
Karen Abbott is the best-selling author of SIN IN THE SECOND CITY, AMERICAN ROSE, and, most recently, LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY, named one of the best books of by Library Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and Amazon, and optioned by Sony for a miniseries. Her works to date have looked at women who function at the edges of society: brothel owners, striptease artist and Civil War spies.
I am so pleased that she was able to join us.
Take it away, Karen:
What’s your next book about and when is it coming out?
My next book is called THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK, and it&#;ll be published this October 8. It&#;s the incredible true story of America&#;s most successful bootlegger, George Remus—reportedly an inspiration for Jay Gatsby—who, by the summer of , owned 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States. The press calls him &#;King of the Bootleggers,&#; writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events h
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A Secret History Of Civil War-Era Women
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True stories of daring women during the Civil War. Best-selling author Karen Abbott shares their exploits in a new book: “Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy.”
Think Civil War and you’re likely to think boys in blue and gray. Horse, cannon, cutlass and dock at war. But the Civil War pulled women in to its web of conflict as well. Some in most djärv, dramatic fashion. On the backroads and battlefields, and in darkened parlors where secrets, battle plans, and urgent messages made their way. A new history tells the stories of four women who soldiered and spied, for the North, for the South. Bold and daring women. This hour On Point: “ Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy - fyra women undercover in the Civil War.”
-- Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Karen Abbott, author of the new book "Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover In The Civil War." Also author of "Sin in