When the World Ended: The Diary of Emma LeConte

The United States is built on ruination. Emma survived but the promise that the Constitution had been for mankind perished with Columbia. I share Emma's story with many people who are better for knowing it. You might benefit from reading it as well.

Though Emma writes from the perspective of the losing side of the Civil War, and though her beliefs on race clash greatly with our times, her persistence in the face of horrible suffering is a magnificent example to us all. She stands as testimony to the powerful spirit of the South and of Southern women in particular. Were we as committed to the ideals of our day as she was to those of her day, ours would be a powerful society indeed. Her diary is all the more shocking when you realize that she was only seventeen when she began writing