| America's Buried History: Landmines in the Civil War Contributor(s): Rutherford, Kenneth R. (Author) |
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ISBN: 161121453X ISBN-13: 9781611214536 Publisher: Savas Beatie OUR PRICE: $26.96 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) - History | Modern - 19th Century - History | Military - United States |
| Dewey: 973.78 |
| LCCN: 2019005531 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.9" W x 9" (1.10 lbs) 216 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Topical - Civil War - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Despite all that has been published on the American Civil War, one aspect that has never received the in-depth attention it deserves is the widespread use of landmines across the Confederacy. These "infernal devices" dealt death and injury in nearly every Confederate state and influenced the course of the war. Kenneth R. Rutherford rectifies this oversight with America's Buried History: Landmines in the Civil War, the first book devoted to a comprehensive analysis and history of the fascinating and important topic. Modern landmines were used for the first time in history on a widespread basis during the Civil War when the Confederacy, in desperate need of an innovative technology to overcome significant deficits in materiel and manpower, employed them. The first American to die from a victim-activated landmine was on the Virginia Peninsula in early 1862 during the siege of Yorktown. Their use set off explosive debates inside the Confederate government and within the ranks of the army over the ethics of using "weapons that wait." As Confederate fortunes dimmed, leveraging low-cost weapons like landmines became acceptable and even desirable. The controversial weapon was the brainchild of Confederate General Gabriel J. Rains (who had experimented with explosive booby traps in Florida two decades earlier during the Seminole Wars, and other Confederates soldiers developed a sundry of landmine varieties, including command-controlled and victim-activated. The devices saw extensive use in Virginia, at Port Hudson in Louisiana, in Georgia, the Trans-Mississippi Theater, during the closing weeks of the war in the Carolinas, and in harbors and rivers in multiple states. Debates over the ethics of using mine warfare did not end in 1865, and are still being waged to this day. Dr. Rutherford, who is known worldwide for his work in the landmine discipline, and who himself lost his legs to a mine in Africa, relies on a host of primary and secondary research to demonstrate how and why the mines were built, how and where they were deployed, the effects of their use, and the reactions of those who suffered from their deadly blasts. America's Buried History is an important contribution to the literature on one of the most fundamental, contentious, and significant modern conventional weapons. According to some estimates, by the early 1990s landmines were responsible for more than 26,000 deaths each year worldwide. Landmines, argues Dr. Rutherford, transitioned from "tools of cowards" and "offenses against democracy and civilized warfare" to an accepted form of warfare until the early 1990s. The genesis of this acceptance began during the American Civil War. |
Contributor Bio(s): Rutherford, Kenneth R.: - Kenneth R. Rutherford received his PhD from Georgetown University and BA and MBA degrees from the University of Colorado. He is known for his decades-long work in the landmine discipline, including as co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network. Rutherford was a prominent leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. A professor of political science at James Madison University, he directs the university's Center for International Stabilization and Recovery, which for more than 21 years has been recognized as a global leader in international efforts to combat the effects of landmines and explosive remnants of war. He also publishes the longest running publication on landmines, The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction. He is the author of more than 40 journal articles and two books, including Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines (Praeger, 2010) and co-editor of two books, including Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy (SUNY Press, 2006). |
