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Title: The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War
ISBN: 0689843585
Author:
Carol Matas
Publicate Date: 2002-09-01
Publish: 2002-09-01
List Price: $9.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Other side of the War
This book talks about the South's view of the book. It tells the story of Hannah Green. She tells her slaves that they are inferior to her. But later General Grant sends out Order 11, that all the jews in the area are to evacuate to Cairo, Illinois. In the meantime Hannah's sister falls in love with a union soldier who has taught her a different way of thinking. Hannah believes that her sister has betrayed her family and they get in a huge fight. While Hannahs family is being treated so terribly by the union soldiers she recognizes that her situation is like the slaves. When she gets to Cairo she finally realizes that the Blacks are equal humans and gives into the unions way of thinking. I really liked the this book and how it showed the civil war from the souths side. The only thing i didn't like is that the ending was left too open. I wanted to find out what happened to her family.
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2: A gripping story of a Jewish family caught up in the U.S. Civil War
"The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War," by Carol Matas, is narrated in the first person by the book's main character, Hannah Green. Hannah is a 13-year old Jewish girl who lives with her slave-owning family in Mississippi during the time of the U.S. Civil War. In the course of the war Ulysses S. Grant orders the expulsion of all Jews from the territory he controls. The novel explores the impact of the war in general, and Grant's expulsion order in particular, on Hannah and the other characters.
Matas has created a complex and compelling human tapestry. It's not a simple "good guys" versus "bad guys" equation. Hannah's world is filled with a diverse group of characters--Jew and gentile, slave and free, Confederate and Union, soldier and civilian, abolitionist and pro-slavery, male and female. Ironically, some characters suffer the impact of anti-Semitism even while they perpetuate racism against African-Americans. As the story unfolds, Matas' characters debate vital issues, such as abolitionism, the role of religion in war, and Jewish solidarity across the Confederate/Union divide.
Hannah's opening lines declare, "The war has changed everything. And it has changed me." A key theme in the book is the complexity of Hannah's multiple overlapping identities as a Confederate, a Jew, a "white" person, a "Southern lady," etc. These identities basically get deconstructed in the turbulence of war. Matas deals frankly with the violence and destruction of war. She creates some powerful conflict and biting dialogue. Matas also supplements the main text with information about the history behind the story, and with insight into the research that went into the writing of the book. Hannah--flawed but admirable--is a powerfully rendered character, and her story is a well-written and thought-provoking narrative about a fascinating aspect of the Civil War.
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3: The War within
IT sucks.Terrible. IT hurt me to read it. NEVER Buy this book. MAkes you want to cut yourself
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4: Excellent Civil War novel for the young reader
Author Carol Matas has done a superb job in this well researched novel of the Civil War. In this novel, we see the war through the eyes of civilians in the South. The Green family is Jewish but they are relatively assimilated. The setting is a small town in northern Mississippi at the end of 1862. The Greens own a store and also own three slaves who are well treated. Hannah Green is 13 and her older sister, Joanna, has fallen for a Jewish Union army officer who is occupying the area. The family trusts their slaves, to the point that they allow "Moses" to run the family store in the absence of Hannah's and Joanna's father who is serving in the war. They also have two brothers who are fighting and two who are still at home.
Their lives go on quite well despite the Union occupation. However, two catastrphic events take place. First, their beloved Confederate troops come but do not liberate them. Rather, they destroy anything that can be used by the Union as supplies, thus devestating the possessions of loyal southerners in the town. Secondly, General Grant's Order number 11 is enforced, thereby forcing the Greens to leave since the order is one of expulsion of Jews living anywhere in the area of Grant's jurisdiction. Grant was probably acting against his father who sought to profiteer from the war. Since his father had a Jewish partner, Grant may have transposed his adversion to his father to Jews instead.
Joanna's romance with a union soldier, the discrimination against them because they were Jews and their discovery that their well treated slaves nonetheless did not want to be property (and may, in fact desire to be free) caused the Greens, Hannah in particular, to re-evaluate many of the assumptions they took for granted. As an adult reader, I found this book to be excellent and as a Civil War history buff, I believe the book is well researched. Parenthetically, in an epilogue, Ms Matas backs up her research. Therefore, I learned something I never before realized: reform Judaism already existed in the United States (including the south) at the time of the Civil War.
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5: The War Within
The book I choose to read was The War Within by Carol Matas. In this book a young girl, Hannah, has a major problem in her life. She is being raised to be a young Southern Lady, and a war is interfering. It is in the middle of the Civil War and her family has been sent out of Holly Springs, because of their religion. Not only do she and her family have to leave their home town, but her two older brothers and father are away fighting. They have to leave because they are Jewish. You follow Hannah and her family through a tough but suspenseful adventure. Hannah does not understand why that the Jews are being blamed, but near the end of the novel she starts to understand that all people are equal no matter what race or religion.
I personally enjoyed this book very much. It always kept me waiting to see what came next. I also really liked how it showed what people had to go through during the Civil War. Another point I was fond of about the book was that it has made me even more respectful of other religions and other races. It also made it much clearer that the Civil War was not only about the ownership of slaves. It was over leaving the Union and the South becoming its own colony. This book has made a major impact on my life and views of others. I am very glad I read this book. I think everyone should read The War Within because their view on life will change at least a little. I most definitely benefited from reading this book, and would give it four out of five stars. It was an excellent story!
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