During the Civil War and Reconstruction, popular magazines throughout the country published hundreds of short narratives that confronted or evaded the meaning of the Union's crisis. In this first volume of a projected trilogy that seeks to recover the significance of this forgotten body of writing, Diffley examines the effort of popular writers and publications to contain the disruption caused by the war and its aftermath
"Especially impressive is the innovative structure of this work, which interlaces the tasks of literary and cultural historian, editor, and literary critic. . . . Where My Heart Is Turning Ever is at once an impressive study and a genuinely good read."
Priscilla Wald
"By examining congressional debates alongside magazine fiction, Diffley shows that they inhabited the same rhetorical universe and underwent similar evolutions."
Stuart McConnell
"An original attempt to connect the popular fiction with the definitions of liberty that emerged from the war. . . . Writ large, Diffley essentially wants to explain how the destruction of slavery did not also lead to the legal emancipation and enfranchisement of women."
