Following up on my earlier comments, I perused the recently released Spring/Summer '25 university press catalogs to see if things are on the upswing since the nadir of sorts that was last fall.
As expected, the top-tier giants (in terms of matching quantity with quality) do not disappoint.
LSU:
• Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War ed. by Schieffler & Stith.
• Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widows in the New South by Jennifer Gross.
• The Consequences of Confederate Citizenship: The Civil War Correspondence of Alabama's Pickens Family ed. by Henry McKiven.
• Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861–1865 by Damien Shiels.
• Late to the Fight: Union Soldier Combat Performance from the Wilderness to the Fall of Petersburg by Alexandre Caillot.
UNC:
• The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment by James Marten.
• The Second Manassas Campaign ed. by Janney & Shively.
• A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg - Volume 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill by A. Wilson Greene.
• Exceptionalism in Crisis: Faction, Anarchy, and Mexico in the US Imagination during the Civil War Era by Alys Beverton.
Seven former regulars still come up empty. Among most of those, that trend has gone on for so many years that I despair of ever hearing from them again. You never know, though.
For the rest, in the onesies category we have:
Georgia:
• Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerrilla Violence during the American Civil War by Fialka & Carman. With this and an earlier one from UNC, I wonder if publishing "graphic history" will become an emerging trend among some UPs.
Kansas:
• Lincoln's Last Card: The Emancipation Proclamation as a Case of Command by Richard Ellis.
Kent State:
• More Important Than Good Generals: Junior Officers in the Army of the Tennessee by Jonathan Engel. As mentioned before, this one is already out.
Mercer:
• Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist and Georgia's First Republican Senator, 1812-1891 by Bradley Rice.
Nebraska:
• Waging War for Freedom with the 54th Massachusetts: The Civil War Memoir of John W. M. Appleton edited by Jewell & Van Sickle (Potomac Books).
Oklahoma:
• It looks like it's been five years since the last CW title from OU Press's Campaigns and Commanders series (which has a lot of great entries), so the announcement of
Hero of Fort Sumter: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Anderson by Wesley Moody is exciting. I'm looking forward to learning more about Anderson's life and military career.
TAMU Consortium:
• Still nothing from A&M itself, but consortium member State House Press is putting out the following: Rockets, Tanks and Submarines by Edward Cotham.
Tennessee:
• Decisions at Chancellorsville: The Sixteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle by Sarah Bierle.
Overall, I would say that the output numbers situation from 2024 going into 2025 remains pretty much the same. Alabama, Mercer, and Tennessee haven't released their spring catalogs yet, but I've scanned through the preorders listed on the two biggest online book retailers. The Tide have only published one CW title in recent memory so I'm not too sanguine about something popping up later, but we may get more news from the other two.
Is there another 7 publishers or the ones that are listed below? Curious that 2025 is somewhat like last year in CW book output. Hopefully that changes. Kent State is putting out some really good titles as of late, however I am not keen on the paperback formats. I still purchase them nonetheless due to the excellent content. Just wish they would convert to hardcovers w/ DJ. I prefer those as I would be willing to eat the extra cost.
ReplyDeleteDifferent ones.
DeleteYes, it does seem that in Kent St's case that CW titles that would have been hardcover in the past now seem to have gone over completely to paperback.
It's more for those scholarly titles with a narrower reading audience, but another trend I see is to release paperback and hardcover versions at the same time, with the paperback being priced at a consumer-friendly rate but the hardcover jacked up into $100-$150 range.
I too have noticed this trend. Price friendly paperbacks but outrageous hardcover pricing. I usually suck it up as I do like the hardcovers plus with our CDN dollar currently in the tank, it makes it even more painful on the wallet. I just purchased a title that was released in December from UNC Press (a Revolutionary War related title) that stated hardcover, but what I received was a glossy cardboard style hardcover (no DJ). Price was as usual, jacked up significantly. I hope this glossy ‘hardcover’ as they term it, is a one off and not the soon to be norm.
DeleteThankfully we still have publishers such as Savas Beatie who still pump out the quality and scholarly CW books we all enjoy.
Drew: The Caillot book looks interesting. Another long-established "wisdom" is that units in the Army of the Potomac had substantial problems in morale, commitment, and courage by the time the 1864 Overland Campaign began, due in part to being filled by draftees/substitutes, etc. That's the sort of conclusion that is well-suited to examination of smaller units.
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