The 2023 title I didn't get around to reading but most wish I had

Say what you will about the decline of certain categories of Civil War books and the rise of others, it is an unvarnished truth that there is simply never enough time to read everything you want to read. Add to that the processes of noodling over a book's content and then writing and editing a review (none of those go swiftly for me), and even more good stuff through necessity passes to the wayside unread. I guess this post is something of a 'Regret of the Year' award, an appreciation of a big one that got away.

I think I have a good radar for promising material, and back in February when I was putting together my Booknotes entry for Frances Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant's Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era (Oxford, 2023) it seemed clear that the authors' work, heavy on quantitative research and analysis, has much to say about revising and improving our understanding of underage Civil War soldiers along with a number of societal themes surrounding them. It's a major study, a hefty tome with beyond typical headspace demands, and at the time I just felt that my personal level of enthusiasm for learning about the topic couldn't match the scale of time investment required. Perhaps someday.

I am happy for the authors, though. I haven't heard of any awards yet, but reviews have been very positive and a number of historians gave it 'best of' 2023 consideration.