Gendered Strife and ConfusionExploring the gendered dimension of political conflicts, Laura Edwards links transformations in private and public life in the era following the Civil War. Ideas about men's and women's roles within households shaped the ways groups of southernerselite and poor, whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicansenvisioned the public arena and their own places in it. By using those on the margins to define the center, Edwards demonstrates that Reconstruction