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The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War

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"The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War," by Carol Matas, is narrated in the first person by the book's main character, Hannah Green. Hannah is a 13-year old Jewish girl who lives with her slave-owning family in Mississippi during the time of the U.S. Civil War. In the course of the war Ulysses S. Grant orders the expulsion of all Jews from the territory he controls. The novel explores the impact of the war in general, and Grant's expulsion order in particular, on Hannah and the other characters.

Matas has created a complex and compelling human tapestry. It's not a simple "good guys" versus "bad guys" equation. Hannah's world is filled with a diverse group of characters--Jew and gentile, slave and free, Confederate and Union, soldier and civilian, abolitionist and pro-slavery, male and female. Ironically, some characters suffer the impact of anti-Semitism even while they perpetuate racism against African-Americans. As the story unfolds, Matas' characters debate vital issues, such as abolitionism, the role of religion in war, and Jewish solidarity across the Confederate/Union divide.

Hannah's opening lines declare, "The war has changed everything. And it has changed me." A key theme in the book is the complexity of Hannah's multiple overlapping identities as a Confederate, a Jew, a "white" person, a "Southern lady," etc. These identities basically get deconstructed in the turbulence of war. Matas deals frankly with the violence and destruction of war. She creates some powerful conflict and biting dialogue. Matas also supplements the main text with information about the history behind the story, and with insight into the research that went into the writing of the book. Hannah--flawed but admirable--is a powerfully rendered character, and her story is a well-written and thought-provoking narrative about a fascinating aspect of the Civil War.

Carol Matas' novel "The War Within" tells of a situation during the Civil War we don't know much about. In Holly Springs, Mississippi 1802, Hannah Green keeps a journal on the accounts of 2 weeks during the Civil War. Her family owns a general store in the small Southern town who is for slavery, but the war has ruined her beloved town and family. Her father and two older brothers have already gone to fight the war for the south and when the Union army occupies her belove town Hannah is furious. Plus her sister Joanna has also fallen in love with Captain Mazer of the Union---the same Union that has split her family. When General Grant issues General Order #11, which commands all Jew to evacute the his territory the Greens are forced to leave their beloved home. It is on this journey that Hannah learns her views on slavery might not be exactly right with the help of Captain Mazer. For the first time she realizes the discrimination her family receives because they are Jew is very similar to the treatment of slaves. As she battles her own war "within" Hannah begins to realize the true meaning of the War.

Thirteen-year-old Hannah Green and her family are Jews living in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1863. The Civil War is raging, and the Green family are Southern supporters. Hannah's father has always gone along with the Southern way of life, including owning slaves, because he was so relieved to be accepted in Holly Springs, unlike back in Germany. For many years, the Greens have peacefully run their store, but now the war is changing everything. General Grant passes Order #11, which expels all Jews from the territory under his control. On the long march, bitter with anger over the loss of her home, Hannah blames the Yankees for everything. It takes the actions of one good man, a Northern soldier who helps save the lives of Hannah and her family, for her to realize her narrow-mindedness, and to realize her own family's practice of owning slaves is as wrong as the order that forced the Green family and other Southern Jews from their homes. This was a unique historical novel offering a different perspective on the Civil War.

The book I choose to read was The War Within by Carol Matas. In this book a young girl, Hannah, has a major problem in her life. She is being raised to be a young Southern Lady, and a war is interfering. It is in the middle of the Civil War and her family has been sent out of Holly Springs, because of their religion. Not only do she and her family have to leave their home town, but her two older brothers and father are away fighting. They have to leave because they are Jewish. You follow Hannah and her family through a tough but suspenseful adventure. Hannah does not understand why that the Jews are being blamed, but near the end of the novel she starts to understand that all people are equal no matter what race or religion.
I personally enjoyed this book very much. It always kept me waiting to see what came next. I also really liked how it showed what people had to go through during the Civil War. Another point I was fond of about the book was that it has made me even more respectful of other religions and other races. It also made it much clearer that the Civil War was not only about the ownership of slaves. It was over leaving the Union and the South becoming its own colony. This book has made a major impact on my life and views of others. I am very glad I read this book. I think everyone should read The War Within because their view on life will change at least a little. I most definitely benefited from reading this book, and would give it four out of five stars. It was an excellent story!

Thirteen year old Hannah Green is growing up as a proper southern lady of Jewish background during the Civil War. Her father and brother's have joined the Confededrate Army. The women and younger brother's, along with their three slaves, are left to take care of the home. Hannah's view of the world was that Negroes were inferior to whites and that all Union "Yankees" were bad. As the war outside their home carries on a war develops within between Hannah and her sister Joanna, after Joanna falls in love with a Union Captain. Hannah cannot bring herself to think past her own world. She considers her sister a traitor. Once Hannah is discriminated against because of her religion she begins to think differently.

When I first started to read this book, I did not think that it would be as interesting as it was.I especially like how the story is told by a young girl and her experiences during the war. This young girl that the story focuses on is named Hannah. Hannah was going about her daily business when the Civil War traveled to her small town. Everything from that point in her life changed, her father and brothers went off to war. Also her family owned a small store in town that they had to close down. The part in this story that really shocked me was that her sister,Joanna, fell in love with a soldier from the Union. One night during dinner,the soldier that Joanna fell in love with was over. Hannah and her little brother kept snickering because they knew that he was on the other side in the war. The Union were the soldiers that forced Hannah and her family out of their comfortable home. The main reason that they were force out of their house was because they were Jewish. This story focuses on the experiences that Hannah had during the war. She vividly explains her thoughts and feelings in a diary during the Civil War.

This book talks about the South's view of the book. It tells the story of Hannah Green. She tells her slaves that they are inferior to her. But later General Grant sends out Order 11, that all the jews in the area are to evacuate to Cairo, Illinois. In the meantime Hannah's sister falls in love with a union soldier who has taught her a different way of thinking. Hannah believes that her sister has betrayed her family and they get in a huge fight. While Hannahs family is being treated so terribly by the union soldiers she recognizes that her situation is like the slaves. When she gets to Cairo she finally realizes that the Blacks are equal humans and gives into the unions way of thinking. I really liked the this book and how it showed the civil war from the souths side. The only thing i didn't like is that the ending was left too open. I wanted to find out what happened to her family.

A War within- what does this mean? When you look at these words you think? Maybe a family is split from the Civil War, or maybe a family is discouraged about something. In a way both are true. In the Green family this is true. As young Hannah struggles about the war, she has many thoughts running through her head: is slavery wrong or is the South (her home) right. Her brother and father are gone at war. Her sister falls in love with a Yankee soldier. What is she supposed to do? Then to top it off she has been removed from her home because she is Jewish. As all this comes down on her soldiers, her servant (or slave) leaves them with their cook to join the Union army. With all this emotion she has to decide who is right? The South or the North.
A element to describe this book is suspense.

Ten days ago, I knew what was important: order, decorum, manners, and etiquette. That is what it meant to be a southern lady.

In Carol Matas' The War Within, Hannah, a 13-year-old girl is forced to leave her home in Hollow Springs and move to Memphis, but before she reaches Memphis, they are forced to go somewhere else. They are forced to go somewhere else because they are Jews. The soldier that sent them somewhere else also said all of their slaves could leave if they wanted to. Then Hannah comes down with a horrible cold. The cold causes her eyes to swell so she can't open them. Will she ever be able to open her eyes again? Hannah somehow finds a way to fight strong wind, downpours and other obstacles with blind eyes. Carol Matas has won the best-selling author award.
This book is perfect for everyone, including boys and girls. It teaches everyone the dangerous elements of the outdoors, such as quicksand, rushing water, etc. Readers will learn how to avoid these dangerous elements. While adults are reading about dangerous elements kids will be interested in other things. The boys will like reading about the war and talking to soldiers while the girls will like the dresses and dolls. This is why this book is perfect for everyone.

Author Carol Matas has done a superb job in this well researched novel of the Civil War. In this novel, we see the war through the eyes of civilians in the South. The Green family is Jewish but they are relatively assimilated. The setting is a small town in northern Mississippi at the end of 1862. The Greens own a store and also own three slaves who are well treated. Hannah Green is 13 and her older sister, Joanna, has fallen for a Jewish Union army officer who is occupying the area. The family trusts their slaves, to the point that they allow "Moses" to run the family store in the absence of Hannah's and Joanna's father who is serving in the war. They also have two brothers who are fighting and two who are still at home.

Their lives go on quite well despite the Union occupation. However, two catastrphic events take place. First, their beloved Confederate troops come but do not liberate them. Rather, they destroy anything that can be used by the Union as supplies, thus devestating the possessions of loyal southerners in the town. Secondly, General Grant's Order number 11 is enforced, thereby forcing the Greens to leave since the order is one of expulsion of Jews living anywhere in the area of Grant's jurisdiction. Grant was probably acting against his father who sought to profiteer from the war. Since his father had a Jewish partner, Grant may have transposed his adversion to his father to Jews instead.

Joanna's romance with a union soldier, the discrimination against them because they were Jews and their discovery that their well treated slaves nonetheless did not want to be property (and may, in fact desire to be free) caused the Greens, Hannah in particular, to re-evaluate many of the assumptions they took for granted. As an adult reader, I found this book to be excellent and as a Civil War history buff, I believe the book is well researched. Parenthetically, in an epilogue, Ms Matas backs up her research. Therefore, I learned something I never before realized: reform Judaism already existed in the United States (including the south) at the time of the Civil War.