Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Booknotes VI (Oct '13)

October continues to be a busy month for releases, or at least ones sent my way.

New Arrivals:

1. Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border edited by Jonathan Earle & Diane Mutti Burke (Univ Pr of Kansas, 2013).
"Essays on "Slavery and Politics of Law and Order along the Border" examine how the border region was transformed by the conflict over the status of slavery in Kansas Territory and how the emerging conflict on the Kansas-Missouri border took on a larger national significance. Other essays focus on the transition to total warfare and examine the wartime experiences of the diverse people who populated the region in "Making the Border Bleed." Final articles on "The Border Reconstructed and Remembered" explore the ways in which border residents rebuilt their society after the war and how they remembered it decades later."

2. A Quaker Officer in the Civil War: Henry Gawthrop of the 4th Delaware by Justin Carisio (The History Pr, 2013).

The author incorporates Gawthrop's memoir into his own narrative of the officer's Civil War service.

3. The Battle of Fisher's Hill: Breaking the Shenandoah Valley's Gibraltar by Jonathan A. Noyalas (The History Pr, 2013).

A very brief battle study intended for a popular audience, the research appears to be adequate for the purpose. It could use some more maps, though.

4. Robert E. Lee in War and Peace: The Photographic History of a Confederate and American Icon by Donald Hopkins (Savas Beatie, 2013).

This is a handsome collection of Lee images, the author searching archives and collections for all known photographs of the general.

2 comments:

  1. Hopkins book looks very interesting. I always liked Meredith's book of photos on Lee. Another one that should not be forgotten is David Eicher's book on all known photos of Lee. That was a great one and it will be interesting to see how Hopkins improved on it.

    Now if someone would do this for Grant (Eicher was suppose to but I guess never did).

    Chris

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  2. Thanks for the note on the Earle/Burke co-edited volume...looks like there are some good contributors there...on th eother hand, I've been trying to get through Oertel's (one of the contributors) "Bleeding Borders" or the past few months and just not too impressed...in contrast, Mark Lause's "Race and Radicalism," was outstanding in its examination of the war (and pre-war) in Missouri and Kansas, as well as Indian Territory and Arkansas...one of the best books I've read in the past year...

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