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: 7/10/13
River of Dark Dreams (2013)
Walter Johnson opens River of Dark Dreams with a bang and a dream: the 1850 explosion of the steam boat Anglo-Norman at New Orleans and Thomas Jefferson’s “empire of liberty” dream....
Published: 7/3/13
A Field Guide to Gettysburg (2013)
This is the second collaboration between Carol Reardon, a professor of military history at Penn State University, and Tom Vossler, a retired Army colonel and licensed Gettysburg battlefield guide since...
Published: 7/3/13
The Gettysburg Campaign in Numbers and Losses (2013)
Civil War veterans were obsessed with numbers and losses. Regimental historians corresponded with their former comrades for decades, hoping to render an “accurate” depiction of their wartime travails. Grand Army...
Published: 6/26/13
The Election of 1860 Reconsidered (2013)
This series of essays on the election of 1860 had its origins in the third annual symposium of the Civil War Study Group, hosted by the University of Indianapolis, in...
Published: 6/12/13
What the Yankees Did to Us (2012)
General William Tecumseh Sherman was a very bad man. This is the main point of Stephen Davis’ exhaustive history of the Union capture of Atlanta in 1864. Davis makes his...
Published: 6/9/13
Grant at Vicksburg (2013)
Grant at Vicksburg is much more than a biography or campaign study. The depth of Michael Ballard’s research into Grant’s correspondence and routine make it a study in command, control,...
Published: 6/5/13
A Misplaced Massacre (2013)
November 29, 2014, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. On that day in 1864, elements of the 1st and 3rd Colorado volunteer regiments slaughtered more than...
Published: 5/29/13
They Have Left Us Here To Die (2011)
Glen Robins’ transcription and analysis of Sargent Lyle G. Adair’s prison diary provides insight into the Civil War prison camp experience. In They Have Left Us Here to Die, Robins...
Published: 5/29/13
Unholy Sabbath (2012)
Discussion of the skirmishes fought on the mountain passes of western Maryland in mid-September 1862 is usually met with wide eyes. Although South Mountain is traditionally written off as an...
Published: 5/29/13
Divided Loyalties (2012)
In this concise volume, James Finck, a professor at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, offers a reconsideration of white Kentuckians decision to remain neutral—and then ultimately join...
Published: 5/22/13
America on the Eve of the Civil War (2010)
At first glance, America on the Eve of the Civil War: A Virginia Sesquicentennial Signature Conference stands apart from most edited volumes both in aim and in organization. Essentially a transcription...
Published: 5/22/13
Andrew Johnson’s Civil War (2011)
Few Presidents have witnessed as drastic a historiographical shift as Andrew Johnson. Hailed in the early twentieth-century as both a defender of the Constitution and a steadfast barrier to Congressional...
Published: 5/22/13
Mending Broken Soldiers (2012)
The American Civil War acted like a battering ram on the human body. Debilitating diseases incapacitated soldiers for weeks and months. Gleaming bayonet blades, soaring shrapnel and shells and leaden...
Published: 5/15/13
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (2013)
When I received my review copy of Allen C. Guelzo’s Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, I asked myself, “does the world need another one-volume history of Gettysburg?” Recent fine monographs on...
Published: 5/8/13
Becoming Confederates (2013)
Much of the work of the historian comes down to explaining what drove historic actors to behave as they did. For Civil War historians the questions are unusually thorny, and...
Published: 5/1/13
Freedom National (2012)
James Oakes has received high praise for his Lincoln Prize winning Freedom National: the Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865. When an eminent nineteenth-century historian tackles this topic...
Published: 4/24/13
Diverging Loyalties (2011)
Bruce T. Gourley’s Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War is an engrossing, enlightening exploration of our nation’s greatest trauma, as seen through the eyes of a unique...
Published: 4/17/13
A Self-Evident Lie (2013)
Ironically, the falsehood discussed in Jeremy J. Tewell’s important study, A Self-Evident Lie: Southern Slavery and the Threat to American Freedom would not be considered a lie today. His title refers...