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: 12/2/15
BERENSON: Boston and the Civil War (2014)
Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution by Barbara Berenson. The History Press, 2014. Paper, ISBN: 978-1609499495. $14.99. Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution is...
Published: 12/2/15
KELLER: The Story of Camp Douglas (2015)
The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Forgotten Civil War Prison by David L. Keller. The History Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-62619-911-8. $21.99. In his introduction to the 2011 edition of Ovid...
Published: 11/25/15
RYAN: Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign (2015)
Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign by Thomas J. Ryan. Savas Beatie, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1-61121-178-8. $32.95. Intelligence, or the lack thereof, may have played the single-most important...
Published: 11/18/15
HESS: The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta (2015)
The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta by Earl J. Hess. University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1469622415. $35.00. Earl J. Hess has one of the...
Published: 11/18/15
HARDY: The Capitals of the Confederacy (2015)
The Capitals of the Confederacy: A History by Michael C. Hardy. Arcadia Publishing, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-1626198876. $19.99. Serving as a nation’s capital city is generally a rare honor—but not in...
Published: 11/11/15
SMITH: Home Again (2014)
Home Again: A Civil War Novel by Michael Kenneth Smith. CreateSpace, 2014. Paper, ISBN: 978-1499157093. $13.95. A work of historical fiction set during the Civil War, Home Again follows the lives of two young...
Published: 11/11/15
RAPAPORT: Tobacco and Smoking Among the Blue and Gray (2014)
Tobacco and Smoking Among the Blue and Gray: The Illustrated History of An American Folk-Art Curiosity—The Civil War Soldier’s Tobacco Pipe by Ben Rapaport. Briar Books Press, 2014. Cloth, $65.00. The...
Published: 11/4/15
MARTELLE: The Madman and the Assassin (2015)
The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth by Scott Martelle. Chicago Review Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1613730188. $24.95 This...
Published: 10/28/15
HESTER (ed.): A Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina (2015)
A Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina: William Francis Allen’s Civil War Journals edited by James Robert Hester. University of South Carolina Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-1611174960. $49.95. The so-called...
Published: 10/21/15
COOK (ed.): A Quiet Corner of the War (2014)
A Quiet Corner of the War: The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862-1863 by Gilbert Claflin and Esther Claflin and edited by Judy Cook. University of...
Published: 10/14/15
MAY: Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the Tropics (2013)
Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the Tropics: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Future of Latin America by Robert E. May. Cambridge University Press, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 978-0521132527. $26.99. For decades, scholars...
Published: 10/7/15
CHANDLER: The Last Days of the Confederacy in Northeast Georgia (2015)
The Last Days of the Confederacy in Northeast Georgia by Ray Chandler. The History Press, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-1626193444. $19.99. One might not think of northeast Georgia as an ideal...
Published: 9/30/15
DOWNS: After Appomattox (2015)
After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory P. Downs. Harvard University Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0674743984. $32.95. When exactly did the Civil War end? This seemingly...
Published: 9/23/15
MYERS: Rebels Against the Confederacy (2014)
Rebels Against the Confederacy: North Carolina’s Unionists by Barton A. Myers. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Cloth, IBSN: 978-1107075245. $90.00. Barton Myers’s new study of North Carolina’s unionists during the Civil...
Published: 9/16/15
HUSTON: The British Gentry, The Southern Planter, and the Northern Family Farmer (2015)
The British Gentry, The Southern Planter, and the Northern Family Farmer: Agriculture and Sectional Antagonism in North America by James L. Huston. Louisiana State University Press, 2015. Cloth, IBSN: 978-0807159187. $47.50....
Published: 9/9/15
HESS: Civil War Infantry Tactics (2015)
Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness by Earl J. Hess. Louisiana State University Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN 978-0807159378. $45.00. Of all the Union generals of the Civil...
Published: 9/2/15
SOLONICK: Engineering Victory (2015)
Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg by Justin Solonick. Southern Illinois University Press, 2015. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-8093-3391-2. $37.50. On July 4, 1863, after enduring a 47-day siege, Confederate forces under...
Published: 8/26/15
CONANT (ed.): The Gettysburg Address (2015)
The Gettysburg Address: Perspectives on Lincoln’s Greatest Speech edited by Sean Conant. Oxford University Press, 2015. Paper, ISBN: 978-0190227456. $24.95. Sean Conant has amassed an impressive array of contributors for...