
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: 2/5/14
McDANIEL: The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery (2013)
The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionists & Transatlantic Reform by W. Caleb McDaniel. Louisiana State University Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0807150185. $48.00. At first glance, Garrisonian...
Published: 1/29/14
LAUSE: Price’s Lost Campaign (2011)
Price’s Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri by Mark A. Lause. University of Missouri Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0826219497. $29.95. If the devil is truly in the details, Old Scratch...
Published: 1/15/14
THOMSON (ed.): We Are in His Hands Whether We Live or Die (2013)
We Are in His Hands Whether We Live or Die: The Letters of Brevet Brigadier General Charles Henry Howard, edited by David K. Thomson. University of Tennessee Press, 2013. Cloth,...
Published: 1/14/14
CONROY: Our One Common Country (2014)
Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865 by James B. Conroy. Lyons Press, 2014. Cloth, ISBN: 0762778075. $27.95. I suppose that it’s rare to...
Published: 1/8/14
BORCHARD: Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley (2011)
Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley by Gregory A. Borchard. Southern Illinois University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0809330458. $19.95. Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley is an installment in Southern Illinois University’s Concise...
Published: 1/8/14
HOLZER & GABBARD (eds.): 1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year (2013)
1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year edited by Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard. Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0809332469. $32.95. The year 1863 was pivotal to the American Civil War,...
Published: 1/1/14
HESS: The Knoxville Campaign (2012)
The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee by Earl J. Hess. University of Tennessee Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 1572339950. $29.95. The Confederate offensive to capture the Union-held city of...
Published: 1/1/14
WITTENBERG: Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg (2013)
Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg: The Battles of Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, July 2-3, 1863 by Eric J. Wittenberg. Savas Beatie, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1611210941. $16.95. Clausewitz tells us...
Published: 12/25/13
FINSETH (ed.):The American Civil War (2013)
The American Civil War: A Literary and Historical Anthology, Second Edition, edited by Ian Frederick Finseth. Routledge, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 041553707X. $54.95. Anthologies of the American Civil War frequently lose...
Published: 12/25/13
HORTON & KLEINTOP (eds.): Race, Slavery, and the Civil War (2011)
Race, Slavery, and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory edited by James Oliver Horton and Amanda Kleintop. Virginia Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission, 2011. Cloth,...
Published: 12/18/13
Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War (2013)
Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War produced by Randall Poster. ATO Records. Release: November 5, 2013. Twenty-three years since the first airing of Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, The Civil War,...
Published: 12/14/13
WHITE: Confederate General Leonidas Polk (2013)
Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisiana’s Fighting Bishop by Cheryl H. White. The History Press, 2013. Paper, ISBN: 1609497376. $19.99. In 1861, Leonidas Polk seemed poised to establish himself as one of...
Published: 12/11/13
MCQUEEN: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen. Length: 134 minutes. Premiere: October 18, 2013. When 12 Years a Slave begins, a group of slaves stare at you while a voice from the...
Published: 12/4/13
CLEMENS (ed.): The Maryland Campaign Vol. II (2012)
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Vol. II: Antietam by Ezra A. Carman and edited by Thomas G. Clemens. Savas Beatie, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 161121114X. $37.50. Every serious student of the...
Published: 11/27/13
NATHANS: To Free a Family (2012)
To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker by Sydney Nathans. Harvard University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0674725948. $29.95. In the decades before the Civil War, hundreds of slaves ran...
Published: 11/20/13
PATCHAN: The Last Battle of Winchester (2013)
The Last Battle of Winchester: Phil Sheridan, Jubal Early, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, August 7 – September 19, 1864 by Scott Patchan. Savas Beatie, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 1932714987. $34.95. It...
Published: 11/13/13
BARNICKEL: Milliken’s Bend (2013)
Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory by Linda Barnickel. Louisiana State University Press, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0807149926. $39.95. The past few decades have witnessed an outpouring of...
Published: 11/6/13
HOOD: John Bell Hood (2013)
John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General by Stephen Hood. Savas Beatie, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 1611211409. $32.95. If biographers are often guilty of loving their subjects...