Booknotes III (April '14)

New Arrivals:

1. The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean (The Library of America, 2014).

Its material selected and annotated by Sheehan-Dean, this is the last of a four-volume set of Library of America sponsored collections of edited firsthand accounts from the Civil War. In late summer, the books will be re-released as a boxed set with color McElfresh map posters.

2. Gettysburg Religion: Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North by Steve Longenecker (Fordham UP, 2014).

Religious practices in Gettysburg are studied, using the three themes of the subtitle: refinement (in both the spiritual and physical senses), diversity of religious expression, and race. The author argues that Border North towns like Gettysburg were at the forefront of emerging national trends.