Book Reviews
The digital home of book reviews and author interviews—and your source of the most up-to-date information on all things Civil War literature
Published: 11/12/25
Exporting Reconstruction (2024)
"Exporting Reconstruction" is part of a growing body of scholarship that broadens the study of Reconstruction beyond the U.S. South.
Published: 11/5/25
Lee Besieged (2025)
John Horn's "Lee Besieged" is a focused account of Grant's Second Offensive at Petersburg.
Published: 10/29/25
As Wolves Upon a Sheep Fold (2023)
"As Wolves Upon a Sheep Fold" delivers the story of a practical, ordinary citizen swept up in national drama.
Published: 10/22/25
From Ironclads to Admiral (2025)
John Quarstein and Robert Worden finally give Admiral John Lorimer Worden the biography he deserves.
Published: 10/15/25
Hero of Fort Sumter (2025)
Readers will enjoy learning more about Robert Anderson, a man best known for his time at Fort Sumter during the Secession Winter, in Wesley Moody's new biography.
Published: 10/8/25
Litchfield County and the Civil War (2024)
Peter C. Vermilyea offers an in-depth analysis of how the mobilization of a Civil War regiment elicited both patriotism and dissent in a New England community.
Published: 10/1/25
If I Can Get Home This Fall (2025)
Tyler Alexander has assembled a highly readable and moving account of love and war.
Published: 9/24/25
Black Antietam (2022)
"Black Antietam" is a short but welcome work that restores to view the integral role played by African Americans in the community of Sharpsburg.
Published: 9/17/25
Unconditional Surrender (2025)
"Unconditional Surrender" invites readers to understand Grant as a complex individual who confronted head-on the challenges of his times.
Published: 9/10/25
Fractured Freedoms (2025)
"Fractured Freedoms" offers a deeply researched and well written microhistory of the U.S. Civil War era in central Louisiana.
Published: 9/3/25
Lincoln the Citizen (2025)
Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame has shepherded another important primary source into print.
Published: 8/27/25
Gettysburg Surgeons (2025)
"Gettysburg Surgeons" is an engaging narrative that addresses neglected aspects along the battle's well-traveled road.
Published: 8/20/25
Sexual Violence and American Slavery (2024)
"Sexual Violence and American Slavery" thoughtfully makes hard and critical history accessible and understandable.
Published: 8/13/25
Texas: An American History (2025)
Benjamin Heber Johnson has mastered his subject in "Texas: An American History."
Published: 8/6/25
The Final Bivouac (2025)
Chris Calkins's "The Final Bivouac" documents the "end" of the war in Virginia.
Published: 7/30/25
The Lower Battlefield of Antietam (2025)
Robert M. Dunkerly deserves credit for calling much-needed attention to the decisive final attack at Antietam.
Published: 7/23/25
The Age of Reconstruction (2024)
Don Doyle's engagingly written and impressively researched "The Age of Reconstruction" invites scholars to consider what the Civil War era meant to the broader world.
Published: 7/16/25
The Pathfinder and the President (2025)
In "The Pathfinder and the President," John Bicknell employs a wide cast of characters to offer a fresh narrative on a familiar topic.