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: 8/22/18
PFANZ: Where Valor Proudly Sleeps (2018)
Where Valor Proudly Sleeps: A History of Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 1866-1933 by Donald C. Pfanz. Engaging the Civil War Series at Southern Illinois University Press, 2018. Paper, ISBN: 978-0809336456. $26.50. Today, the Fredericksburg...
Published: 8/21/18
COLLINS: A Crooked River (2018)
A Crooked River: Rustlers, Rangers, and Regulars on the Lower Rio Grande, 1861-1877 by Michael L. Collins. University of Oklahoma Press, 2018. Cloth, IBSN: 978-0806160085. $29.95. “It has often been said,” Michael L....
Published: 8/15/18
LLOYD: Harbor of Spies (2018)
Harbor of Spies: A Novel of Historic Havana by Robin Lloyd. Lyons Press, 2018. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1493032266. $24.95. Regardless of what skeptics claim, the Civil War was fought over the issue of...
Published: 8/8/18
LOPERFIDO (ed.): Death, Disease, and Life at War (2018)
Death, Disease, and Life at War: The Civil War Letters of Surgeon James D. Benton, 111th and 98th New York Infantry Regiments, 1862-1865 edited by Christopher E. Loperfido. Savas Beatie, 2018. Paper, IBSN: 978-1611213591. $16.95. The...
Published: 7/25/18
TAGG: The Generals of Shiloh (2017)
The Generals of Shiloh: Character in Leadership, April 6-7, 1862 by Larry Tagg. Savas Beatie, 2017. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1611213690. $32.95. The Generals of Shiloh is designed to be a companion for anyone reading one...
Published: 7/18/18
MALAVASIC: The F Street Mess (2017)
The F Street Mess: How Southern Senators Rewrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Alice Elizabeth Malavasic. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Paper, ISBN: 978-1469635521. $29.95. As a catalyst for party realignment, trigger...
Published: 7/11/18
HESS: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek (2017)
The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood’s First Effort to Save Atlanta by Earl J. Hess. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1469634197. $37.50. On the night of July 17, 1864,...
Published: 7/4/18
GREENE: A Campaign of Giants (2018)
A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg: Volume 1: From the Crossing of the James to the Crater by A. Wilson Greene. University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1-4696-3857-7....
Published: 6/27/18
FRENCH: Phantoms of the South Fork (2017)
Phantoms of the South Fork: Captain McNeill and His Rangers by Steve French. Kent State University Press, 2017. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1-60635-309-7. $39.95. In this narrative history, Steve French sheds light on...
Published: 6/20/18
CUTRER: Theater of a Separate War (2017)
Theater of a Separate War: The Civil War West of the Mississippi River, 1861–1865 by Thomas W. Cutrer. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1469631561. $40.00. As the subject evidenced in...
Published: 6/13/18
BALLARD: William Edmondson “Grumble” Jones (2017)
William Edmondson “Grumble” Jones: The Life of a Cantankerous Confederate by James Buchanan Ballard. McFarland & Company, 2017. Paper, ISBN: 978-1476670768. $39.95. On June 8, 1864, three days after the Confederate...
Published: 6/6/18
WILLIAMS: Georgia’s Civil War (2017)
Georgia’s Civil War: Conflict on the Home Front by David Williams. Mercer University Press, 2017. Cloth, IBSN: 978-0881466317. $35.00. The Civil War was as much a conflict within the Union and Confederacy as...
Published: 5/30/18
CONNOLE: The Civil War and the Subversion of American Indian Sovereignty (2017)
The Civil War and the Subversion of American Indian Sovereignty by Joseph Connole. McFarland & Company, 2017. Paper, ISBN: 978-1476670737. $35.00. In 1865, the Republican Party controlled most all levers of power...
Published: 5/23/18
WILLS: Inglorious Passages (2017)
Inglorious Passages: Non-Combat Deaths in the American Civil War by Brian Steel Wills. University Press of Kansas, 2017. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0700625086. $34.95. In October 1862, one month after the single bloodiest day...
Published: 5/16/18
COOK: Civil War Memories (2017)
Civil War Memories: Contesting the Past in the United States since 1865 by Robert J. Cook. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017. Paper, ISBN: 978-1421423494. $24.95. On June 17, 2015, white nationalist Dylann Roof...
Published: 5/9/18
MACKOWSKI & WHITE (eds.): Turning Points of the American Civil War (2017)
Turning Points of the American Civil War edited by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White. Southern Illinois University Press, 2017. Paper, ISBN: 978-0809336210. $24.50. In his forward to this finely crafted anthology...
Published: 5/2/18
JORDAN (ed.): The Slave-Trader’s Letter-Book (2018)
The Slave-Trader’s Letter-Book: Charles Lamar, the Wanderer, and Other Tales of the African Slave Trade by Jim Jordan. University of Georgia Press, 2018. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-8203-5196-4. $32.95. The Slave-Trader’s Letter-Book is much more...
Published: 4/25/18
RHEA: On to Petersburg (2017)
On to Petersburg: Grant and Lee June 4-15, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea. Louisiana State University Press, 2017. Cloth, IBSN: 978-0807167472. $45.00. The six-week Overland Campaign in Virginia between May 4 and June...