Heroes and Cowards – The Social Face of War
By Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn
(September 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index, 315 pp., 2008. Princeton University Press, 41 William St., Princeton, NJ 08540, $27.95 plus shipping.

Like the seminal works Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War by Gerald Linderman and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War by James M. McPherson, Heroes and Cowards is a well-researched and thought-provoking examination of courage and cowardice during the Civil War.

Authors Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn delve deeply into their assembled data to scrutinize behavioral trends and sociological factors that affected men in various situations, from their period of enlistment through the nightmare of combat. The authors also examine the factors that led men to become deserters and how prisoners of war survived unimaginable circumstances.

Costa and Kahn teach at UCLA, and are research associates at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The language they use in Heroes and Cowards is heavy with academic terminology, sometimes unnecessarily so, and requires patience from the reader. If a teacher distributed this book to a group of 8th grade history students, it would likely produce confusion and frustration.

There are stories of humanity amongst the demographic charts and discussions of methodology. The authors succeed in putting faces with broad concepts such as loyalty, honor and sacrifice. Considerable attention is paid to African-American soldiers and the U.S. Colored Troops, with emphasis on the transformative experiences of many black men who were once slaves and became soldiers.

Heroes and Cowards challenges readers to recognize the inescapable truth that not every man who donned a uniform and shouldered a musket was a fearless warrior.

We may want to believe that our particular ancestor was in the vanguard of every assault, charging headfirst into the cannon’s fiery maw, and such a belief may well be true, but, as these careful and competent authors show us, it may well be wishful thinking.

Reviewer:
John Deppen

John Deppen is past president of the Susquehanna CWRT, a member of General John F. Hartranft Camp #15 of the SUVCW and a living historian who portrays Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. His articles and reviews have appeared in Military Heritage, Gettysburg Magazine, The Civil War News and The Daily Item in central Pennsylvania.