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: 11/30/22
The Gospel of Freedom (2022)
A "valuable contribution" to our understanding of the Underground Railroad.
Published: 11/23/22
The Nashville and Decatur Railroad in the Civil War (2022)
A carefully researched history of an important wartime railroad.
Published: 11/16/22
An Environmental History of the Civil War (2020)
A coherent argument for a more ecologically conscious narrative of the nation’s fratricidal conflict.
Published: 11/9/22
The Last Fire-Eater (2022)
A concise biography of a colorful Confederate.
Published: 11/2/22
Black Suffrage (2022)
A look at northerners' attitudes toward African-American rights in the post-Civil War years.
Published: 10/26/22
Remembering Enslavement (2022)
A "monumental contribution to the study of public history."
Published: 10/19/22
James Montgomery (2022)
A new book rehabilitates the reputation of a maligned and misunderstood Union officer.
Published: 10/17/22
September Suspense (2012)
Close students of Civil War military history are familiar with the long career and good work of Dennis E. Frye. As chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Frye’s...
Published: 10/12/22
Yours Affectionately, Osgood (2022)
An interesting collection of wartime correspondence by a New York officer.
Published: 10/5/22
The War after the War (2022)
A detailed review of John Patrick Daly's "The War after the War," a new history of the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction.
Published: 9/28/22
Count the Dead (2022)
A "little book" that "packs a huge punch."
Published: 9/21/22
The Families’ Civil War (2022)
A deep dive into Philadelphia's working-class African-American soldiers and their families.
Published: 9/14/22
When Hell Came to Sharpsburg (2022)
A look at how the Battle of Antietam affected the local population.
Published: 9/7/22
James Longstreet and the American Civil War (2022)
A detailed defense of "Lee's War Horse" against his postwar detractors.
Published: 9/3/22
The Whartons’ War (2022)
A well-edited collection of a Confederate general's wartime correspondence with his wife.
Published: 8/31/22
W.G. (2022)
A look at the life of a fascinating Civil War-era character.
Published: 8/24/22
Only the Clothes on Her Back (2022)
A detailed review of Laura F. Edwards' "Only the Clothes on Her Back," a look at the lives of everyday Americans in the early republic.
Published: 8/17/22
Been in the Storm So Long (1979)
On the one-year anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize winning scholar Leon F. Litwack’s death, historian Evan C. Jones offers this extended retrospective on Litwack’s magnum opus. Throughout the nineteenth...