Thank  you for visiting my classwork blog. My first project is an analysis of an artistic response to war. It is in partial fulfillment of the UT Arlington class, English 2329, American Literature.

In deciding which artistic piece I would review for this assignment, I first thought of the many songs of protest and criticism from the Vietnam war era, the 1960’s and 1970’s. Then, I asked my husband to name his favorite “war movie” because I knew he had watched many. I don’t have one that I’m very familiar with, and I started to reject the idea of critiquing a movie because it meant I’d have to watch one, though I joked that I might consider reviewing one of the Sylvester Stallone “Rambo” movies.

A burst of internet keywords brought me to a marvelous narrated presentation on the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art website entitled, “Lincoln and the Civil War.” I viewed most of the paintings for the very first time, and thought all were important representations of the Civil War era. However, midway through the slideshow, I saw a trio of images that I had to go back to see again and again. These are paintings by Thomas Waterman Wood, from 1866. Together, they are called, “A Bit of War History;” individually, they are entitled, “The Contraband,” “The Recruit,” and “The Veteran.”