CWBA Year in Review: Standout Books of 2012

This list is part "best of" compilation and part desire to reward those works that, though imperfect, nevertheless address neglected topics in a manner useful and creative enough to be deserving of special recognition. As with all my previous lists, the current one also considers late date titles from the previous year.

Battle/Campaign Histories:

Trans-Mississippi Theater:
The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict of the Civil War by Kenneth E. Burchett (McFarland).

Western Theater:
Corinth 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation by Timothy B. Smith (Univ Press of Kansas).

Eastern Theater:
Holding the Line: The Battle of Allegheny Mountain and Confederate Defense of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, 1861-62 by Joe Geiger (West Virginia Book Co.).

General Military:

The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi by Earl J. Hess (Univ of N. Carolina Press).

Social-Cultural History:

The Golden State in the Civil War: Thomas Starr King, the Republican Party, and the Birth of Modern California by Glenna Matthews (Cambridge Univ Press, 2012).

Political History:

We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861 by William J. Cooper (Knopf).

Economics, Technology and Society:

Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns, and Pearls by James P. Delgado (Texas A&M Univ Press).

Unit History:

The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter by Lance J. Herdegen. (Savas Beatie).

Essay Collection:

The Chattanooga Campaign ed. by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear (So. Illinois Univ Pr, 2012).

Biography:

George Henry Thomas: As True As Steel by Brian Steel Wills (Univ Pr of Kansas).

Naval History:

The Best Station of Them All: The Savannah Squadron, 1861-1865 by Maurice Melton. (Univ of Alabama Press).

Edited Letters/Memoir/Diary:

Confederate "Tales of the War" in the Trans-Mississippi, Part Three: 1863 edited by Michael Banasik (Camp Pope Publishing).

Edited Manuscript:

The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume II: Antietam edited by Thomas G. Clemens (Savas Beatie).

Guide Book/Map Study:

The Battle of First Bull Run - Manassas Campaign July 16-22, 1861 - An Illustrated Atlas and Battlefield Guide by Blaikie Hines (American Patriot Pr).

Self-Published Effort:

Kirksville: The True Story of Urban Warfare in America's Heartland by D. Craig Asbury (Author).