Given that my last two posts are on the depressing topic of plagiarism, I thought it might be a nice transition to focus on a short list of books that reflect some of the best studies to be published in the field. I will use the same guidelines as outlined by Ethan Rafuse over at Civil Warriors: "This list assumes that one has already read a general history of the war, such as McPherson’s Ordeal By Fire, does not include secondary works older than 30 years, and does not include multivolume works."
Mark Neely, The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Larry Daniel, Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004).
Mark Dunkelman, Brothers One And All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004).
George Rable, Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
Emory Thomas, The Confederate Nation: 1861-1865 (New York: Harper and Row, 1979).
Drew G. Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996).
Philip S. Paludan, A People’s Contest: The Union and Civil War, 1861-1865, (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).
David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).
Gary W. Gallagher, ed. Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989).
Obviously I could have just as easily picked another set of books, but this seems to be fairly well rounded. What do you think?
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J. Tracy Power, Lee’s Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox. Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades; Why Men Fought in the Civil War. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1997.
Civil War Top 10
Right on. How about Grimsley’s _Hard Hand Of War_ and Earl Hess’s _The Union Soldier in Battle_.