Stephen W. Berry II is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. All That Makes A Man is his first book.

Finalist, 2004 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship, George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War

"In his elegantly written and cogently argued book, Berry suggests that 'love and ambition' were 'all that made' an elite white man of the antebellum South. While many historians have argued at some length over the nature of planter-class ambition, no one, to my knowledge has suggested that love, particularly romantic love for their wives and sweethearts, stood at the center of the planter-class men's sense of themselves as men."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"[A]ngrossing and well-written study of southern men's embrace of love and ambition. An insightful, thought-provoking study of emotional life, gender, and warfare which adds substantially to our understanding of these matters in the American Civil War."--Journal of Social History

"Berry's study combines superb scholarship with a poet's love of language. From his own pen and from those of his sources, he seasons his text with turns of phrase that bring pleasure to eye, ear and tongue."--Baltimore Sun

"Stephen Berry has mined the letters and diaries of Southern white men and women of the Civil War generation to explore the relationship among the competing masculine values of love and ambition, home and honor, sensitivity and stoicism. The wrenching impact of war on the tensions between the outer and inner meanings of masculinity form the central theme of this fascinating study."--James M. McPherson, Princeton University

"Stephen Berry's new book makes powerful contributions to Southern history, Civil War history, and gender history. But, most of all, it is a landmark achievement in historical writing. Addressed as much to the heart as to the head, it leaves an irreducible--and unforgettable--impression. The scene dazzles, the characters live, the prose sings."--John Demos, Yale University

"With an elegance and intellectual breadth rarely found in a first book, All That Makes a Man provides memorable vignettes about how Southern gentlemen of the Civil War era lived, loved, and died--many of them in battle. Stephen Berry's study deeply probes the nature of manliness as they defined it for themselves. Offering fertile readings of letters, diaries, and imaginative literature, he skillfully illuminates a perilous, tragic period in regional history."--Bertram Wyatt-Brown, University of Florida

"Breathtakingly original and eloquently written, this page turner transports the reader into the intimate lives of antebellum white southerners. With empathy and wisdom, Berry makes abstractions such as love and honor as real as voting patterns and battle lines. The personal, it turns out, was political. Berry has set a new standard for writing gender history."--Glenda Gilmore, Yale University