Review On They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil By: DeAnne Blanton - Book Report/Review Example

Their remarkable research sought to find out the actual role of the women during the civil war and their direct involvement in the war. From their argument it is easy to note the reasons as to why they wrote the book: to explore and explain these women, their experiences as combatants and the various controversial issues surrounding their service in the military. The authors, Blanton and Cook’s greatest success in their book is largely drawn from their professional experiences as a professional archivist and an amateur historian respectively.

With Blanton working at the national archives, specifically with the military records from the nineteenth century and Cook taking part in civil war reenactment, at least until when she was discovered to be a woman together they present a very able and qualified duo to perform the research. The text tells the real stories of the patriotic citizens in order to repair the histories of the past which were distorted. They portray the women as successful soldiers, a person to be admired and trusted by her comrades even when the truth was to eventually come out.

There was already evidence of women soldiers who were part of the national consciousness, until the Freudian age, when any woman acting in other than the customary sexual roles was deemed abnormal or depraved. However other than a few stories, such women’s stories were minimized and eventually forgotten until authors like Blanton and cook took the initiative to carry out research to find out the facts and truths. Relying on more than a decade of research in primary sources, they documented at least 250 women serving in the union and confederate ranks.

The women in uniform had different reasons and perhaps some of the reasons mirrored those of men-patriotism, honor, heritage, and desire foe excitement. The women’s motives for joining were the same across the lines that is, they