The Bookshelf

Sean Michael Chick's "Dreams of Victory" asks some interesting questions and brings to life the old controversies.

"The Whartons' War" is a voluminous collection covering over three years of the war with no significant gaps.

Daniel J. Burge's "A Failed Vision of Empire" is a well-written, deeply researched, and provocative book.

John A. Simpson's "All for the Union" offers yet another lens through which to trace the timeworn trail of the embattled Army of the Potomac.

Terry Alford's spellbinding "In The Houses of Their Dead" makes important interventions in both Civil War scholarship and Lincoln studies.

Carole Emberton's "To Walk About in Freedom" is a remarkable microhistory centered around one formerly enslaved woman’s FWP interview.

Ben Nussbaum's "Gettysburg" features an impressive collection of short essays by several scholars.

"Spectacle of Grief" by Sarah J. Purcell is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the paradoxes of American nationalism, either in the Civil War era or today.

"Gettysburg's Lost Love Story" by Jeffrey J. Harding is told with verve and a keen eye for descriptive detail.

"Love & Duty" by Angela Esco Elder demonstrates that not all Confederate widows midwifed the Lost Cause.