Secondary Sources and their Vitality

The first paper assigned to Humanities Core students for the quarter dealt with the use of Civil War images and representations of the war itself. We were required to visually analyze a Civil War image of our choice and explain how and why that image represented the war in the way that it did.

During my research process, I had a brief moment of panic due to my inability to find a proper image followed by a secondary source. The fact that I also had not written a visual analysis essay in my entire existence added onto my anxiety. However, with the guidelines provided by my section Professor and through the Humanities Core Course, I managed to eventually find both after browsing endlessly for them. After constantly looking for an image and its citation, I stumbled upon and found the image “A Soldier’s Dream of Home” on the Humanities Core Course’s “Image Gallery” link. After familiarizing with the image and its content and purpose at the time, I began to embark on finding the secondary source. I clicked on the links embedded in the “The Writing Process and Student Learning Goals” PDF and discovered databases that would grant me access to scholarly articles. Initially, I was lost in the sense that I did not have experience with databases and was clueless on how to search for material.

I looked at my image and began brain storming key words that would hopefully load up useful content to support it. I attempted to type in phrases such as “union soldiers in the civil war”, “homesickness in the civil war,” “sentimental domesticity”, “Currier and Ives”, etcetera. The key phrase that allowed me to find a great secondary source was “homesickness in the civil war”. That secondary source was none other than the article “Dying of Nostalgia: Homesickness in the Union Army during the Civil War” written by David Anderson. Anderson is a lecturer in the American Studies Program at Swansea University in Wales and is a graduate of the University of Dundee in Scotland. Currently, he is completing a study regarding post Reconstruction era plantation reminiscences. His article was published as a PDF on a database known as Project Muse provided by UCI. Anderson’s source discusses homesickness and the dynamics of Nostalgia among the Union Soldiers in the Civil War. There is a central focus on how soldiers associated home with love, family, and comfort. The article additionally provides justifications as to why they felt homesick or nostalgic and how it was their reality at the time.

Anderson's source was vital when writing my essay for various reasons. It aided in bringing clarity on why the soldiers felt cases of nostalgic and what they associated with home. He defines home and gives it a comforting connotation therefore making it uncomplicated to connect the concepts of sentimental domesticity and reality. Being sentimental towards their home and longing to return to familiar grounds had become their reality in the war. I referenced most of his article to support the concept of sentimental domesticity along with the studies made in the article to validate the concept. Overall, the secondary source I managed to get my hands on was essential and made the writing process of this writing assignment much simpler.

Most importantly, It brought relief of having to write this paper.







Source Images
http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/?p=916
http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2013/07/fear-and-anxiety-shutterstock_104556128-617x416.jpg
http://www.therapyinmontreal.com/Portals/238135/images/anxiety-treatment.jpg