Review - "The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War" by Foote & Hess, eds.

[The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War edited by Lorien Foote and Earl J. Hess (Oxford University Press, 2021). Hardcover, 51 maps, notes, bibliography, index. Pages:xiv,689. ISBN:978-0-19-090305-3. $150]

The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War is a new addition to the prolific Oxford Handbooks series, the broad aim of which is to "offer authoritative and up-to-date surveys of original research in a particular subject area." Series volumes "give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research." In an essential step toward meeting those lofty goals, contributing editors Lorien Foote and Earl Hess have gathered nearly three dozen colleagues to craft 39 essays charting the military progress of the war. In keeping with one of the major mandates of the series, many of the chapter authors in this volume are leading authorities on the particular topic(s) upon which they write (ex. Brian McKnight on the fighting in Appalachia, Kenneth Noe on the 1862 Kentucky Campaign, Scott Hartwig on the Maryland Campaign, and so on).

It's difficult enough to find the space in a review to discuss at even a basic level each chapter in a standard-sized anthology of eight to twelve essays, but this massive tome encompassing nearly forty entries makes that task impossible, so we'll have to stick with broad strokes. Unlike most general military histories of the war, Foote and Hess's handbook compilation offers a very satisfying mix and balance of coverage across all three primary theaters of war (East, West, and Trans-Mississippi). The chapters are arranged in chronological fashion, and it is not completely out of line to frame the resulting treatment as one of the most comprehensive single-volume military histories of the war, even if it lacks by its very nature a connecting narrative.

Most chapters are centered upon one or more major military campaigns. In addition to more traditional content and interpretation along the lines of leadership, politics, operations, and tactics, each essay incorporates on some level additional "New Military History" topics and themes thrust into the mainstream over the latter part of the past century as well as more recent "War and Society" developments. This integrative approach is most prominently displayed through the vast majority of essays having at least some engagement with emancipation scholarship and its multitude of research branches. A great host of other intersections between more traditional military history and current trends in academic Civil War scholarship—among the latter the literature examining hard war effects in both urban and rural settings, race, the natural environment, gender, class, geography, loyalty, and citizenship—are broadly exhibited. Individual essays as well as the volume's fine general introduction persuasively extol the benefits of the interdisciplinary approach and are encouraging of fruitful directions Civil War scholarship might take in the future. Emphasizing both planned and unplanned elements of connectivity at local, state, and national levels, the collection effectively shows that every campaign to some degree produced lasting reverberations worthy of ongoing study. Critically, through all of this it is made clear to the reader that military history needs to retain its central influence within the expansive modern landscape of Civil War scholarship.

There are a small number of more theme-driven essays in the book (ex. those covering "Bleeding Kansas," the Civil War in Indian Territory, postwar occupation, and the naval blockade of southern ports), but, as mentioned above, a decision was made to construct the great majority of chapters around either a single campaign or multiple campaigns linked together. Though that structuring is very effectively implemented and remarkably thorough, it does mean that some important but more diffuse military topics are perhaps undeservedly relegated to background status. As just one example, while several chapters integrate the unconventional war into the main discussion (one of the better ones is Joseph Beilein's assessment of the war's only significant attempt at officially coordinating the efforts of guerrillas and conventional forces in a major campaign), one might argue on the basis of the huge body of scholarly work built up over the past couple decades that the guerrilla war deserves a chapter of its own. That said, however, in a thick tome already approaching 700 pages in length, a line must undoubtedly be drawn somewhere.

The notes and bibliography placed at the end of each chapter fulfill scholarly requirements and usefully steer the handbook's target audience toward the best candidates for further reading. Also, present in the volume is a sound appreciation of cartography as an essential element of military history presentation. The book's 51 maps, all created by noted Civil War cartographer Hal Jesperson, offer both necessary geographical lessons as well as solid visual representations of the large-scale movements involved in the various campaigns described in the text.

Under the expert guidance of co-editors Foote and Hess, The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War, through its critical engagement with current trends in the military and social history scholarship and its noteworthy identification of topics meriting further exploration, succeeds admirably at fulfilling the challenging mandates of OUP's Handbook series. Those qualities as well as the highly accessible nature of the writing makes this handbook excel as a broadly useful guide to the present state of the Civil War military history literature.