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: 3/23/22
Civil War Witnesses and Their Books (2021)
Civil War Witnesses collects eight, carefully crafted and extensively researched essays that deliver on the promises set forth in the subtitle. According to the editors, the works under consideration were “written...
Published: 3/16/22
Ends of War (2021)
Caroline E. Janney carefully states that Ends of War “neither examines nor excuses the motivations or purposes of Confederates as soldiers.” Instead, “it explores the war’s ending as a pivotal...
Published: 3/9/22
The Horse at Gettysburg (2021)
An estimated 80,000 horses and mules accompanied the opposing armies to Gettysburg. The Union and Confederate forces relied upon them to pull miles of supply wagons and hundreds of cannon,...
Published: 3/2/22
Contesting Commemoration (2021)
In 1876, about one in five Americans attended the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with an event similar to a world fair....
Published: 2/15/22
Bulldozed and Betrayed (2021)
The election of 1876 generated enormous controversy. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, despite losing the popular vote, won the presidency by one electoral vote over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes’s victory...
Published: 2/9/22
My Work Among the Freedmen (2021)
History seems all too seldom interested in basically “good” people, and historians often emphasize ambiguity, complexity, or irony in describing historical actors or crafting biographies. The editors of My Work...
Published: 2/2/22
Rebel Salvation (2021)
Reconstruction is often depicted as a political and policy battle between “Presidential Reconstruction,” led by President Andrew Johnson and “Congressional Reconstruction,” advocated by Radical Republicans in the United States Congress....
Published: 1/26/22
Untouched by the Conflict (2019)
More than two million young men left their civilian lives, donned blue woolen uniforms, shouldered arms, and served in the Union army during the Civil War. Many Dickinson College alumni...
Published: 1/19/22
Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy (2021)
Born along the middle border in Franklin County, Ohio, in 1831 and dying on the “closing” Colorado frontier in 1891, John R. Kelso lived what can only be described as...
Published: 1/5/22
Rites of Retaliation (2021)
By the fall of 1862, Jefferson Davis believed he had found a way to control the Union Army. That summer General John Pope had led an army into Virginia, issuing...
Published: 12/29/21
Stephen A. Swails (2021)
Among the many shelves of biographies chronicling the exploits of Civil War Americans, there are precious few treatments of Black soldiers or sailors. This is just one reason that students...
Published: 12/22/21
Robert E. Lee (2021)
“How do you write the biography of someone who commits treason?” asks Allen C. Guelzo, Senior Research Scholar at Princeton University and the distinguished author of some of this century’s...
Published: 12/15/21
Searching for Irvin McDowell (2021)
While there are shelves of books about Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, dozens of Civil War generals have not yet scored biographers. One name that falls into this...
Published: 12/8/21
Worthy of a Higher Rank (2021)
On October 22, 1864, three days after a remarkable Union victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek, The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer reported the grim news that one of that community’s most...
Published: 12/1/21
Rebel Correspondent (2021)
In 1901, Arba F. Shaw began writing a series of war reminiscences that were published in serialized form in his local newspaper. What began as a brief commentary turned into...
Published: 11/24/21
The Summer of ’63: Vicksburg & Tullahoma (2021)
On July 7, 1863, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, anxious to maintain Union initiative following pivotal victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, sent a perplexing telegraph to one of his...
Published: 11/17/21
Passing Through the Fire (2021)
Savas Beatie’s popular Emerging Civil War series presents concise titles suited for both enthusiasts and novice students of military history. Increasingly, these brief but detailed studies have shifted away from...
Published: 11/10/21
The Summer of ’63: Gettysburg (2021)
The Summer of ‘63 is an engaging and diverse set of works exploring the Battle of Gettysburg. Regarded by many as the turning point of the Civil War, Gettysburg still...