
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: 8/27/14
JENKINS: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek (2014)
The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood’s First Sortie, July 20, 1864 by Robert D. Jenkins, Sr. Mercer University Press, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0881463965. $35.00. July 17, 1864, was a momentous...
Published: 8/27/14
VENET: A Changing Wind (2014)
A Changing Wind: Commerce & Conflict in Civil War Atlanta by Wendy Hamand Venet. Yale University Press, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-300-19216-2. $30.00. Wendy Venet’s interesting new social history of Atlanta during the...
Published: 8/20/14
MACKOWSKI & WHITE: Simply Murder (2013)
Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862 by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White. Savas Beatie, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1611211468. $12.95. This engaging volume, part of the “Emerging Civil...
Published: 8/20/14
FRESE: Concord and the Civil War (2014)
Concord and the Civil War: From Walden Pond to the Gettysburg Front by Rick Frese. History Press, 2014. Paper, ISBN: 1626192944. $19.99. Rick Frese’s Concord and the Civil War: From Walden...
Published: 8/13/14
PRINCE: Stories of the South (2014)
Stories of the South: Race and the Reconstruction of Southern Identity, 1865-1915 by K. Stephen Prince. University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 1469614189. $39.95. In Stories of the South: Race...
Published: 8/6/14
O’CONNELL: Fierce Patriot (2014)
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O’Connell. Random House, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 9781400069729. $28.00. It is a respected aphorism that each generation possesses the inherent...
Published: 8/6/14
KORDA: Clouds of Glory (2014)
Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee by Michael Korda. HarperCollins, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 0062116290. $40.00. There are two difficulties in the path of any biography of...
Published: 7/30/14
SMITH (ed.): Race and Recruitment (2013)
Race and Recruitment edited by John David Smith. Kent State University Press, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 9781606351802. $29.95. In recognition of Civil War History‘s 60th anniversary, the editors at Kent State University Press...
Published: 7/30/14
DIOUF: Slavery’s Exiles (2014)
Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons by Sylviane A. Diouf. New York University Press, 2014. Cloth, IBSN: 081472437X. $29.95. In 1838, authorities discovered a trapdoor hidden beneath a pile...
Published: 7/23/14
GOTTFRIED: The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns (2013)
The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns: An Atlas of the Battles and Movements in the Eastern Theater after Gettysburg, Including Rappahannock Station, Kelly’s Ford, and Morton’s...
Published: 7/16/14
EMBERTON: Beyond Redemption (2013)
Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War by Carole Emberton. University of Chicago Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 022602427X. $45.00. This book surprised me. I expected an...
Published: 7/16/14
SMITH & LOWERY (eds.): The Dunning School (2013)
The Dunning School: Historians, Race, and the Meaning of Reconstruction edited by John David Smith and J. Vincent Lowery. The University Press of Kentucky, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0813142253. $40.00. It seems...
Published: 7/9/14
CASTEL (with SIMPSON): Victors in Blue (2011)
Victors in Blue: How Union Generals Fought the Confederates, Battled Each Other, and Won the Civil War by Albert Castel with Brooks D. Simpson. University Press of Kansas, 2011. Cloth, ISBN:...
Published: 7/9/14
LONG: Doctoring Freedom (2012)
Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation by Gretchen Long. University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0807835838. $37.50. Gretchen Long’s Doctoring Freedom: The Politics...
Published: 7/9/14
DUNKERLY, PFANZ & RUTH: No Turning Back (2014)
No Turning Back – A Guide to the Overland Campaign, from May 4-June 13, 1864 by Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth. Savas Beatie, 2014. Paper, ISBN:...
Published: 7/2/14
MORGAN: The Civil War Lover’s Guide to New York City (2013)
The Civil War Lover’s Guide to New York City by Bill Morgan. Savas Beatie, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1611211220. $18.95. Bill Morgan has written a wonderful guidebook to the Civil War in...
Published: 7/2/14
PLUMB (ed.): Your Brother in Arms (2011)
Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey edited by Robert C. Plumb. University of Missouri Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0826219209. $34.95. In August 1862, nineteen year old George Pressly McClelland,...
Published: 6/25/14
HAGER: Word by Word (2013)
Word By Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing by Christopher Hager. Harvard University Press, 2013. Cloth, IBSN: 0674059867. $39.95. In Word by Word, Christopher Hager examines selected antebellum and wartime writings...