ABSTRACT
Civil War history is often thought of as a field dominated by traditional military histories, focused on battles, generals, and soldiers fighting in the field. This chapter focuses on the areas in which advances in our knowledge seem to have been most dramatic. These areas include the Civil War's environmental history, the history of disease and medicine, and intellectual property. It offers a brief overview of areas in which advances have been less revolutionary, but nonetheless important. Among these areas are the mobilization of military manpower and women on the home front; finance and trade; and the wartime experiences of business firms and business communities. The new environmental histories of the Civil War became an important part of a larger explosion of work on disease, death, and medical care. New research on manpower mobilization in the North tended to focus on the local level.
