Booknotes (February '13)

New Arrivals:

1. The World's Largest Prison: The Story of Camp Lawton by John K. Derden (Mercer UP, 2012).

Opened in October 1864 and closed only six weeks later, Camp Lawton was a massive Georgia POW camp and administration center. Derden provides both a history of the prison and discussion of recent archaeological finds.

2. Bucking the Railroads on the Kansas Frontier: The Struggle Over Land Claims by Homesteading Civil War Veterans, 1867-1876 by John N. Mack (McFarland, 2012).

This study details the conflict between Civil War veterans who settled in Kansas after the war and the large railroad companies that claimed their land. The author argues that the success of the homesteaders helped shape the political environment of Kansas and the West in general.