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: 7/19/23
The Grammar of Civil War (2022)
Will Fowler, currently professor of Latin American studies at the University of St. Andrews, is a highly accomplished scholar of nineteenth century Mexico. His Santa Anna of Mexico offers a revisionist...
Published: 7/11/23
Without Concealment, Without Compromise (2023)
One might suppose there is nothing new to learn about the Civil War era. Jill L. Newmark’s splendid new monograph, Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil...
Published: 7/5/23
Cherokee Civil Warrior (2023)
W. Dale Weeks makes clear that his biography of the long-serving Cherokee chief John Ross does not focus on Ross’s involvement in the Civil War, despite its title. For Weeks,...
Published: 6/28/23
Continental Reckoning (2023)
How does the birth of the American West relate to the Civil War era? Elliott West’s newest comprehensive history, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion, attempts...
Published: 6/21/23
Through Blood and Fire (2023)
After being seriously wounded at Antietam, Major Charles Mills eventually returned to the Army of the Potomac as a staff officer and served during some of the bloodiest campaigns of...
Published: 6/14/23
Civil War Generals of Indiana (2022)
During the U.S. Civil War, some three million men provided their services to both the Union and Confederate armies. With massive armies being formed, there was a dire need for...
Published: 6/7/23
African Americans, Death, and the New Birth of Freedom (2022)
With this book, Ashley Towe makes an important contribution to African American history during the Civil War era. Towle reveals the ways in which death provided African Americans with a...
Published: 5/31/23
From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge (2022)
Josiah Henson, believed by many to be the inspiration for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland, in 1789. He...
Published: 5/24/23
All Roads Led to Gettysburg (2022)
Nearly two decades after the release of his consequential Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg, Troy D. Harman, a renowned Gettysburg National Military Park ranger, has returned with another contemplative treatment...
Published: 5/17/23
Delivered Under Fire (2023)
After the excitement of enlisting had faded, and the newness of soldiering had evolved into monotonous routine, the Civil War soldier often looked homeward to sustain his flagging morale. Writing...
Published: 5/9/23
Navigating Liberty (2022)
Published to great fanfare in 1964, Rehearsals for Reconstruction by Willie Lee Rose has long represented the standard for scholarly works dealing with complex and troubled process of wartime emancipation. As...
Published: 5/3/23
Storm Over Key West (2020)
Florida often receives scant coverage from Civil War scholars, but Key West has received perhaps even less attention. Mike Pride offers a remedy with Storm Over Key West. Pride interrogates...
Published: 4/25/23
Man of Fire (2023)
Derek D. Maxfield’s Man of Fire is the latest entry in Savas Beatie’s Emerging Civil War Series, which aims to supply general readers with short, accessible introductions to key facets of...
Published: 4/19/23
The Democratic Collapse (2022)
Lauren Haumesser’s excellent book is a welcome addition to antebellum political history and gender studies. She convincingly argues that Northern Democrats, Southern Democrats, and Republicans all shared gender ideals—the independent,...
Published: 4/12/23
The Fifth Border State (2023)
Three decades after the Civil War, Theodore Lang, a veteran of the 6th West Virginia Cavalry, published Loyal West Virginia. While Lang’s volume focuses mainly on the service of troops...
Published: 4/5/23
Young America (2022)
There is a common narrative that America’s two-party system, created by battles between the Democrats and Whigs during the 1830s and 1840s, fell apart at the dawn of the sectional...
Published: 3/29/23
Unsung Hero of Gettysburg (2021)
When it comes to cavalry commanders at the Battle of Gettysburg, several figures—Stuart, Custer, and Buford, to name a few—instantly come to mind. Despite an admirable record, one federal divisional...
Published: 3/22/23
Lincoln: The Fire of Genius (2022)
Plenty of people who study the Civil War have heard accounts of Lincoln testing out the new, breech-loading Spencer repeating rifle behind the Executive Mansion. Was this a one-off event,...