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Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political IdealistLois Gordon's absorbing biography tells the story of a writer, activist, and cultural icon who embodied the dazzling energy and tumultuous spirit of her age, and whom William Carlos Williams once called "one of the major phenomena of history." Nancy Cunard (1896 1965) led a life that surpasses Hollywood fantasy. The only child of an English baronet (and heir to the Cunard shipping fortune) and an American beauty, Cunard abandoned the world of a
Lois Gordon's absorbing biography tells the story of a writer, activist, and cultural icon who embodied the dazzling energy and tumultuous spirit of her age, and whom William Carlos Williams once called "one of the major phenomena of history." Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) led a life that surpasses Hollywood fantasy. The only child of an English baronet (and heir to the Cunard shipping fortune) and an American beauty, Cunard abandoned the world of a celebrated socialite and Jazz Age icon to pursue a lifelong battle against social injustice as a wartime journalist, humanitarian aid worker, and civil rights champion. Cunard fought fascism on the battlefields of Spain and reported firsthand on the atrocities of the French concentration camps. Intelligent and beautiful, she romanced the great writers of her era, including three Nobel Prize winners, and was the inspiration for characters in the works of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett, and Ernest Hemingway, among others. Cunard was also a prolific poet, publisher, and translator and, after falling in love with a black American jazz pianist, became deeply committed to fighting for black rights. She edited the controversial anthology Negro, the first comprehensive study of the achievement and plight of blacks around the world. Her contributors included Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Zora Neale Hurston, among scores of others. Cunard's personal life was as complex as her public persona. Her involvement with the civil rights movement led her to be ridiculed and rejected by both family and friends. Throughout her life, she was plagued by insecurities and suffered a series of breakdowns, struggling with a sense of guilt over her promiscuous behavior and her ability to survive so much war and tragedy. Yet Cunard's writings also reveal an immense kindness and wit, as well as her renowned, often flamboyant defiance of prejudiced social conventions. Drawing on diaries, correspondence, historical accounts, and the remembrances of others, Lois Gordon revisits the major movements of the first half of the twentieth century through the life of a truly gifted and extraordinary woman. She also returns Nancy Cunard to her rightful place as a major figure in the historical, social, and artistic events of a critical era.Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 04/01/2007
ISBN: 9780231139380
Pages: 447
Weight: 1.83lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.48w x 1.41d
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 01/22/2007 pg. 172
New York Times 04/01/2007 pg. 1
Booklist 02/15/2007 pg. 28
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4.7 ★★★★★
Based on 19 reviews
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★★★★★ 5
Amazing Oil!
Style: Restore & Protect, Size: 5 QT, Configuration: 5W-30
So far after first oil change it made my Toyota Tundra 5.7L with 255k miles run smoother and quieted the timing chain tensioner knock that I was quoted $5k and up to repair! Will be using from now on to 500k miles plus!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2026
★★★★★ 5
A fascinating glimpse into the undoing of the Confederacy
Format: Paperback
This dense and and well-written book includes some really interesting insights into how the Confederacy was formed, but then ultimately challenged and destroyed by some of the people it excluded. In Confederate Reckoning, we get to learn about the epic political battle in which White women and slaves in the South helped to undermine the Confederacy and determine the outcome of the Civil War.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Excellent book!
Format: Paperback
I think this is a fabulous book. I have always been interested in the causes of the civil war and this book presents an interesting, almost fascinating perspective, which I havent' seen in other books. I have also been reading James Oakes fabulous "Freedom National" and the two books complement each other extremely well. McCurry's book is not of the quality that Oakes book is but not much is.
I cannot understand the criticism of her writing. I find her writing to be very good...admittedly some of the sentences are too long and a few ill defined names but this is a very well written book.
Although we have all studied some version of much of this material before I find it hard to believe that almost anyone won't be astonished by the magnitude of the task the confederacy was attempting to take and its inherent stupidity or maybe a better description would be craziness of these people.
Good book!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2013
★★★★★ 4
Outstanding exploration of the Confederacy's domestic divisions which helped contribute to its ultimate defeat.
Format: Paperback
This is an extremely powerful interpretation of the political forces at play in the Civil War South. Like it or not, Stephanie McCurry delivers a careful exploration of the domestic forces which were occurring during the Civil War in the Confederacy. The result is illuminating and exposes issues with great depth that have been overlooked in the study of the conflict. Much as domestic issues influenced government policies in the United States during the war as well as constantly in US history, domestic issues played an important role in influencing the actions of the Confederate government. Despite the Confederacy being an attempt to create an elite class system of rule, those without a voice in government found a way to be heard partly through their own actions, but also due to the democratic nature of American government.
McCurry, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania has definitely opened a can of worms with the release of this book. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2011 losing out to Eric Foner’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, itself a great work on the Civil War. Just how important were the actions of women and slaves in the Confederacy during the Civil War? McCurry states that their actions helped drive government policies. Based upon her work as well as others I would say she was correct. Others disagree. I think the thing to consider here is that the Confederacy, despite setting up a government ruled by the elite class of slave owners, was still responsive to the majority of the people inhabiting it.
While it was an attempt to create a new nation, it was still required to adhere to some of the principles of the American Revolution. In order to establish the nation, the slave owners were going to have to wage an insurrection and for that they needed the help of the non-slave owners who would compose the majority of its armies. McCurry notes this and shows that this was just the first example of the elites compromising to achieve their goals. No matter what the elites desired, it could only happen with the support of the people in the Confederacy. It would be that support which was critical for the survival of the Confederacy. Without it, the Confederacy had no chance.
This is often overlooked. First, many people think the Confederacy enjoyed the support of the people of the slave states. They did not. Of the 15 slave states in 1860, only 11 would join the Confederacy. Of those 11 states, a full third of the white men in them actually opposed secession. From the very beginning, the Confederacy had to deal with an active resistance inside its borders from whites who rejected their authority and slaves who would contribute as little as possible to the Confederate war effort. Later, soldier wives would riot as well as shield deserters. McCurry wrote extensively about these features.
Just how much these factors played in the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy is going to be a guess and is open to debate. Did they cause the Confederacy to lose? Not of their own accord, but they did contribute to the defeat of the South over time. There is no doubt that the use of slaves by the Confederate armies was challenged from the very beginning of the war to the final end of it. The facts are undeniable on this matter and McCurry is not the first historian to note this nor will she be the last. The inability of the Confederacy to use its manpower to the maximum capacity was a crippling factor. The issue of slave labor and slave soldiers reflects the deep divisions within the Confederacy and exposes the rotten foundation which the slave owners tried to build their nation upon.
All in all I liked the book. As some of the other comments show, the writing style could have been better. She repeated herself in multiple spots. This I think is a reflection of her still emerging writing style. Confederate Reckoning is only her second published book. She has written many articles, but those are different methods of writing compared to books. It takes some time for historians to really find their voice when writing monographs. She does have a Coursera course available, “The History of the Slave South,” which was offered in both 2014 and 2015. I think McCurry does a good job in opening up our eyes to the domestic issues on the Confederate home front. The real question which will be debated is just how much impact they had. I suspect that will be the argument for many.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2015
★★★★★ 5
Hidden History
Format: Paperback
Dr. McCurry has no dog in this fight. She is Irish by birth, and raised in Canada. However, she brings a fresh perspective to the Confederate enterprise. From its foundation to the bitter end, the life of the Confederate state is documented in the words of the people who lived it. Dr. McCurry includes all the people embraced by the Confederacy, even if they weren't considered "citizens." This includes women and the enslaved people; two thirds of the Confederacy's population. The only battles documented are the struggles of an infant state professing to have perfected the US Constitution that had birthed into war. It didn't all work out as planned. But there are important lessons to be learned that aren't usually taught about the Civil War.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2020
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