Marketing the blue & gray : newspaper advertising and the American Civil War
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr.'s Marketing the Blue and Gray analyzes newspaper advertising during the American Civil War. Newspapers were widely circulated between 1861 and 1865, and merchants took full advantage of this readership. They marketed everything from war bonds to biographies of military and political leaders; from patent medicines that promised to cure almost any battlefield wound to "secession cloaks" and "Fort Sumter" cockades. Kreiser argues that commercialization and patriotism became increasingly intertwined as Union and Confederate war aims evolved; that the notices helped to expand American democracy by allowing their diverse readership to participate in almost every aspect of the Civil War; and that the advertisements helped readers to become more savvy consumers and, ultimately, citizens, by offering them choices."--Provided by publisher.