Category: Civil War Book Reviews

  • Review: The Confederacy’s Secret Weapon: The Civil War Illustrations of Frank Vizetelly

    The Confederacy’s Secret Weapon: The Civil War Illustrations of Frank Vizetelly (Civil War Sesquicentennial Series) (Paperback) by Douglas W. Bostick Product Details Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: History Press (November 20, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1596295929 ISBN-13: 978-1596295926 Small books have a special set of delights unique to them.  Unlike their huge detailed conspicuous footnoted brothers, […]

  • Review: Loyal Hearts: Histories of American Civil War Canines

    Loyal Hearts: Histories of American Civil War Canines by Michael Zucchero Product Details Hardcover: 184 pages Publisher: Schroeder Publications; 1st edition (February 16, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1889246573 ISBN-13: 978-1889246574 Horses are famous.  Many of us can name a general’s horse without any problem at all.  Robert E. Lee’s horse, Traveler, rated a novel by […]

  • Review: The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies

    Bynum, Victoria E. The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies. The University of North Carolina Press (2010). 240 pages, 9 illustrations, 1 map, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3381-0 $35.00 (Hardcover). Was the Lost Cause tradition of a “Solid South” a myth?  Author Victoria Bynum conclusively answers this question in the […]

  • Review: Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War

    Swan, James B. Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War. Southern Illinois University Press (2009). 306 pages, roster, notes, maps, bibliography, index. ISBN: 978-0-8093-2890-1 $32.95 (Hardcover). What was life like for western Irish volunteers in the American Civil War? Historian James B. Swan attempts to answer that question in Chicago’s Irish […]

  • Review: Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations

    Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations (The Littlefield History of the Civil War Era) by Howard Jones Product Details Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (December 18, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0807833495 ISBN-13: 978-0807833490 A different view of diplomacy American diplomacy during the Civil War […]

  • Review: Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858

    Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858 by Craig Miner Product Details Hardcover: 305 pages Publisher: University Press of Kansas (September 3, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0700616128 ISBN-13: 978-0700616121 “Bleeding Kansas” stirs the blood and invokes images from our national memory over 150 years after the event.  One of the first violent national […]

  • Review: Virginia at War, 1863

    Davis, William C. & Robertson, Jr., James I. (editors). Virginia at War, 1863 (2008). 232 pages, notes, bibliography. ISBN: 978-0-8131-2510-7 $35.00 (Hardcover). Virginia at War, 1863 is the third entry in a series of five essay books on Virginia in the Civil War.  The book, edited by well known Civil War historians William C. Davis […]