Booknotes III (February '10 )

New additions this month:

1. Thunder on the River: The Civil War in Northeast Florida by Daniel L. Schafer (UP of Florida, 2010).

Readers with a previous interest in the subject might recall Schafer as the author of Jacksonville's Ordeal by Fire (Florida Publishing Co., 1984). This new book is a much more expansive and scholarly military and social history of the region, again centering on the series of Union occupations of Jacksonville and environs. It looks great.

2. The Die Is Cast: Arkansas Goes to War, 1861 edited by Mark K. Christ (The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 2010).

This slim volume is a compilation of essays examining Arkansas's road to secession and Civil War, from a variety of perspectives (Confederates, Unionists, women, etc.).

3. Texas Devils: Rangers and Regulars on the Lower Rio Grande, 1846-1861 by Michael L. Collins (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2010).

New paperback edition (originally published in hardcover in 2008). Collins reassesses the role and conduct of the Texas Rangers along the border. From the publisher description of the book, I gather it won't be a positive one.