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: 8/23/23
The Demands of Justice (2023)
The Demands of Justice examines “the lives of enslaved women accused of capital crimes to understand how slavery and its corresponding laws and social customs worked to criminalize them and limit...
Published: 8/18/23
President Garfield (2023)
He was the first front porch campaigner and the last president born in a log cabin. After eking by former Union general Winfield Scott Hancock with the closest popular vote...
Published: 8/9/23
The Grimkes (2022)
Among the leading African American professionals at the turn of the 20th century were brothers Archibald and Francis Grimke. The former served as U.S. consul to the Dominican Republic, while...
Published: 8/2/23
Small But Important Riots (2023)
By the author’s own admission, Small but Important Riots has been a lifetime commitment. “Nearly thirty years of continuing research into the events that transpired in and around the Loudoun Valley...
Published: 7/26/23
Colonel Hans Christian Heg (2023)
Tens of thousands of foreign-born and first- or second-generation immigrants served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Historians have focused extensively on large immigrant groups, like the Germans...
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...