Best of 2010

Civilians During the battle of Fredericksburg

Unfortunately, this year’s picks are based on a slightly shorter list of books than in the past owing to the amount of time I spent over the summer revising my book manuscript on the battle of the Crater.  However, that didn’t prevent me from reading a fairly large number of books that are worth acknowledging at the end of another year.  Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read, comment, and consider what I have to say.  I have no plans to quit blogging.  In fact, the popularity of this site continues to grow and continues to open up new opportunities for me that I could not have imagined just a few short years ago.  The coming year promises to be another good one on both the professional and personal fronts.  I hope all of you are enjoying the Holiday Season.

Best Civil War Blog: This was one of the easiest choices that I’ve had to make in this category since starting this list.  While there are plenty of good Civil War blogs to choose from only a select few stand out to me as important resources for both scholars and general enthusiasts.  John Hennessy’s Mysteries and Conundrums is hands down the most important Civil War blog in our little corner of the blogosphere.  M&C is the group blog of the staff at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and while Hennessy is the most visible writer other contributors include Noel Harrison, Mac Wycoff, and Eric Mink.  Their blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at the complex process involved in interpreting some of America’s most sacred and controversial historic sites.  The site offers interested readers a primer on how public history is done and it does so by engaging the public as an integral part of the process.  No other website or even published study has taught me more over the past year about the history of the Fredericksburg area, public history, and Civil War memory.  Thanks to John and the rest of the staff for inviting us inside, showing us how it is done, and for providing a blueprint that other historic sites can employ.

Best History Book of 2010: Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Knopf, 2010).

Best Overall Civil War History: George Rable, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War (Littlefield History of the Civil War Era, 2010).

Best Campaign/Battle Study: Earl J. Hess, Into the Crater: The Mine Attack at Petersburg (University of South Carolina Press, 2010).

Best Biography: Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (Norton, 2010).

Best Confederate Study: Kenneth W. Noe, Reluctant Rebels: The Confederates Who Joined the Army after 1861 (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).

Best Union Study: Lorien Foote, The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army (New York University Press, 2010).

Best Slavery Study: Stanley Harrold, Border War: Fighting over Slavery before the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).

Best Memory Study: Benjamin G. Cloyd, Haunted by Atrocity: Civil War Prisons in American Memory (Louisiana State University Press, 2010).

Best Edited Collection: Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller eds. ,The Great Task Remaining Before Us: Reconstruction as America’s Continuing Civil War (Fordham University Press, 2010).

Best Social History: Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (Harvard University Press, 2010).

Some good things to look forward to in 2011: Joseph Glatthaar, Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia: A Statistical Portrait of the Troops Who Served Under Robert E. Lee (University of North Carolina Press); David S. Reynolds, Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America (Norton); James Marten, Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America (University of North Carolina Press); Wallace Hettle, Inventing Stonewall Jackson: A Civil War Hero in History and Memory (Louisiana State University Press); Brooks Simpson, The Civil War in the East: A Reassessment (Praeger); Gary W. Gallagher, The Union War (Harvard University Press); David Goldfield, America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (Bloomsbury Press).

Civil War Memory has moved to Substack! Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe below.

5 comments… add one
  • Nat Turners Son Dec 21, 2010 @ 12:24

    Great List!

  • John Maass Dec 21, 2010 @ 4:07

    Great book recommendations, Kevin, thanks. I also need to start looking at Mysteries and Conundrums a lot more. Only one comment…I’d vote for Alan Taylor’s books as 2010’s most over-hyped, over-rated book of the year. IMHO, the book has 2 major flaws which should have been seen by the editor and the outside readers. 1st–the book is not really about the war of 1812, at least not in theatres other than the Canadian/US border. Everywhere else seems to get short shrift, or totally ignored. For example, nowhere does the battle of Horseshoe Bend appear, and the Creeks get hardly a mention. He simply ignores the Creek War, the Chesapeake Bay campaigns of 1813-1814, etc. It is too narrow. Hickey is still the best overall study, to be sure. Secondly, this conceptual framework of a “civil war” is weakly presented and supported. It only comes out occasionally, and then only as an afterthought. It is not a bad idea, and should have been teased out with much greater detail and emphasis, but for pages on end, Taylor loses track of this theme–or ignores it totally, as in the case of southern Indians. That is to say, if the main theme was to be about “civil wars” within a war, there’s no better example than the divided Creeks in the south, but we hear nothing about that.

    Anyway, I will have to look at some of the other titles you mention, in 2011. JM

    • Kevin Levin Dec 21, 2010 @ 4:17

      Hi John,

      You make some good points about Taylor re: the book’s scope. It definitely focuses on the region of Canada and the US that were the subjects of his earlier studies. Still, I learned a hell of a lot from reading it and I thoroughly enjoy his writing style. Definitely head on over to M&C. As always, thanks for reading John and enjoy the Holidays.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *