I seem to recall the Spruills mentioning this book series project on CWTR a while back. Currently set for a December 2017 release, Decisions at Stones River: The Sixteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle is pitched as the first volume in University of Tennessee Press's new Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series (even though Matt Spruill had previously worked with UTP on 2011's similar sounding Decisions at Gettysburg: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Campaign)
The Stones River volume will be followed shortly by Decisions at Second Manassas: The Fourteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle (January 2018).
Instead of battle narratives, the series titles (which also feature original maps and a guided battlefield tour) "focus on the critical decisions, those decisions that had a major impact on both Federal and Confederate forces in shaping the progression of the battle as we know it today. Th(e) account is designed to present the reader with a coherent and manageable blueprint of the battle’s development. Exploring and studying the critical decisions allows the reader to progress from an understanding of “what happened” to “why events happened” as they did."
is pitched as the first volume in University of Tennessee Press's new Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series (even though Matt Spruill had previously worked with UTP on 2011's similar sounding Decisions at Gettysburg: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Campaign)
(January 2018).
This looks like an interesting series. A promising sign is that it starts off with two major battles which generally "don't get no respect".
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that the battles they authored guidebooks for already are the candidates for this series. If so, we may just get lucky and get a Seven Days volume.
DeleteNow you're talking.....
DeleteI am glad these found a home. We were very interested, but the authors were not willing to follow our editorial advice. I'm curious how these will present.
ReplyDeleteI never saw the GB book. I would imagine that they would be similar format, esp. since the publisher is the same.
DeleteEditorial advice regarding the book's organization/format, writing style, or both?
DeleteOf course, I'd forgotten that I have the GB book. It's not bad and includes at the end a tour guide to the locations where the decisions were made. There are also some useful modern photos showing the "lay of the land" from the point of view of the decision make in several instances.
ReplyDelete