Blog
Published: 4/8/16
What is the connection between Abraham Lincoln and Walt Disney?
Learn about two of history’s most beloved figures, Abraham Lincoln and Walt Disney, in our latest Behind the Lines interview with Dr. Brian Craig Miller, Associate Professor at Emporia State...
Published: 4/6/16
ACKEN (ed.): Service with the Signal Corps (2015)
Service with the Signal Corps: The Civil War Memoir of Captain Louis R. Fortescue edited by J. Gregory Acken. University of Tennessee Press, 2015. Cloth, IBSN: 978-1621901259. $48.50. The U.S. Veteran...
Published: 3/30/16
DIXON: The Lost Gettysburg Address (2015)
The Lost Gettysburg Address: Charles Anderson’s Civil War Odyssey by David T. Dixon. B-List History, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0986155109. $18.95. “The world with neither long note nor remember what we say...
Published: 3/25/16
How do the myths about Sherman’s March line up with the historical realities?
Sherman’s March remains one of the contentious and mythologized events of the Civil War. Learn about how some of these myths line up with the realities in this interview with...
Published: 3/23/16
HUFFSTODT: Lincoln’s Bold Lion (2015)
Lincoln’s Bold Lion: The Life and Times of Brigadier General Martin Davis Hardin by James T. Huffstodt. Casemate Publishers, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1612003399. $32.95. In Lincoln’s Bold Lion, fellow native Illinoisan James T....
Published: 3/16/16
MESCH: Teacher of Civil War Generals (2015)
Teacher of Civil War Generals: Major General Charles Ferguson Smith, Soldier and West Point Commandant by Allen H. Mesch. McFarland, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-0-7864-9834-5. $39.95. Arguably, the education provided at...
Published: 3/11/16
How do we explain the continued endurance of the idea of black Confederates?
In this Behind the Lines interview, we talk with scholar Kevin Levin about where the phrase and idea of black Confederates came from and why it is so compelling for...
Published: 3/9/16
CANAVAN: Lincoln’s Final Hours (2015)
Lincoln’s Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America’s Greatest President by Kathryn Canavan. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0813166087. $29.95. Not a year goes by without several...
Published: 3/8/16
The Unintended Expert
Lisa Shafer Garry Adelman holds the first Civil War image he ever owned, an ambrotype of an unidentified Union soldier given to him by his grandmother at age 16. It...
Published: 3/2/16
CHAMBERS: No God But Gain (2015)
No God But Gain: The Untold Story of Cuban Slavery, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Making of the United States by Stephen Chambers. Verso Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1781688076. $27.00. ...
Published: 2/24/16
SILVERMAN: Lincoln and the Immigrant (2015)
Lincoln and the Immigrant by Jason H. Silverman. Southern Illinois University Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0809334346. $24.95. As an issue, immigration lends itself to an exegesis of Abraham Lincoln’s pronouncements...
Published: 2/19/16
What was the seedy side of Richmond like during the Civil War?
We talk with Ashley Whitehead Luskey about how the Civil War changed the city of Richmond in terms of size and especially in terms of social customs. As the city...
Published: 2/17/16
ENGLE (ed.): The War Worth Fighting (2015)
The War Worth Fighting: Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency and Civil War America edited by Stephen D. Engle. University Press of Florida, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0813060644. $31.95. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War...
Published: 2/10/16
DOWNS & MASUR (eds.): The World the Civil War Made (2015)
The World the Civil War Made edited by Gregory P. Downs and Kate Masur. University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-1469624181. $29.95. A brief review such as this...
Published: 2/3/16
ALEXANDER: Dawn of Victory (2015)
Dawn of Victory: Breakthrough at Petersburg, March 25-April 2, 1865 by Edward S. Alexander. Savas Beatie, 2015. Paper, ISBN 978-1611212808. $12.95. There have been generations of attempts to pinpoint when...
Published: 1/29/16
What are the biggest myths surrounding the battle of Cold Harbor?
We talk with Mike Gorman, an historian and park ranger at Richmond National Battlefield Park about the many myths surrounding Cold Harbor. Did 3,000 men really die in one hour?...
Published: 1/27/16
THOMPSON: The National Joker (2015)
The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire by Todd Nathan Thompson. Southern Illinois University Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 976-0-8093-3422-3. $29.50. Abraham Lincoln’s facility with words allowed him...
Published: 1/20/16
MILLER: Empty Sleeves (2015)
Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil War South by Brian Craig Miller. University of Georgia Press, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-0820343327. $29.95. In the opening pages of Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil...