Tag: Books

New To the Civil War Memory Library, 08/01

by Kevin Levin 0

It’s been a while since I last updated my list of books received as review copies and those purchased.  As always, thanks to those of you who have gone through my affiliate account with Amazon to purchase items.  Thanks to you I rarely have to shell out my own money for new titles.  This list reflects a good deal of reading outside of Civil War history.

George Bernard, Civil War Talks: Further Reminiscences of George S. Bernard and His Fellow Veterans (University Press of Virginia, 2012).

James Downs, Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Amanda Foreman, A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War (Random House, 2011).

Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s (University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Gary W. Gallagher and Rachel Shelden, eds. A Political Nation: New Directions in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Political History (University Press of Virginia, 2012).

James Green, Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America (Pantheon, 2006).

Jill Lepore, The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death (Knopf, 2012).

Peter D. Norton, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (MIT Press, 2011).

Richard Slotkin, The Long Road To Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution (Liveright, 2012).

Jill Ogline Titus, Brown’s Battleground: Students, Segregationists, and the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Analytical v. Narrative History

by Kevin Levin 6

The other day one of my readers inquired as to whether I “only acquire books from university presses.”  I’ve addressed this issue in the past, but it is worth spending a few minutes revisiting.  It’s a fair question given that the overwhelming majority of Civil War titles that I list in these posts are from university presses.  By extension, the same holds true for my Civil War library as a whole.  That fact alone, however, won’t tell you much about my reading habits.  I am going to tread lightly here given that some of us can get pretty defensive when it comes to our reading preferences and interests.  While I love a good history narrative my primary interests in the area of Civil War studies are books that are analytically driven.  Yes, I want it to be readable, but I also want to be engaged and challenged by a good argument.  I prefer books that are heavy on theory and conceptual analysis and light on traditional narrative.

I gravitate toward historians who are going to add something significant to my understanding of the period or challenge what I already believe.  In the area of military history I prefer a Glenn David Brasher or George Rable over a Stephen Sears.  If I am going to read a biography I prefer something along the lines of Keith Dickson’s new book about Douglas Southall Freeman.  Yes, most of these folks have gone through graduate programs in history and tend to teach in a college or university.  No, you don’t necessarily have to have proceed in such a fashion, but for those who do the result is an understanding of a subject and possession of a skill that is unlikely to occur elsewhere.  This is not meant as a slight to anyone in particular or to anyone’s preferences.  I happen to love the work of Sears.  In the end, it comes down to what one is hoping to learn from the inquiry itself.  I’ve been reading Civil War studies long enough to have a pretty good grasp of the historiography and my interests tend to revolve around certain questions that I find intriguing and that have shaped the field over time.  When something new comes out I can evaluate it based on the quality of the interpretation as well as where it fits into the broader field.  Quite often a well argued book shows me something important beyond the Civil War period and even beyond the study of history itself.

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New to the Civil War Memory Library, 04/23

by Kevin Levin 7

Here is a list of recent acquisitions, including a few titles that I picked up while in Milwaukee for the annual meeting of the OAH.  I probably should refrain from accumulating more books at least through the middle of the summer.  More on this later. :-)

Mark H. Dunkelman, Marching With Sherman: Through Georgia and the Carolinas With the 154th New York, (LSU Press, 2012).

Allen C. Guelzo, Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Christian McWhirter, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Megan Kate Nelson, Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2012).

Mark J. Stegmaier ed., Henry Adams in the Secession Crisis: Dispatches to the Boston Daily Advertiser, December 1860-march 1861 (LSU Press, 2012).

Yael A. Sternhell, Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Brian Steel Wills, George Henry Thomas: As True As Steel (University of Kansas Press, 2012).

New to the Civil War Memory Library, 03/02

by Kevin Levin 4

Glenn David Brasher, The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Thomas J. Brown, ed., Remixing the Civil War: Meditations on the Sesquicentennial (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).

David Glassberg, Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001).

Guy Gugliotta, Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War (Hill and Wang, 2012).

Harold Holzer, Emancipating Lincoln: The Proclamation in Text, Context, and Memory (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Brian Matthew Jordan, UNHOLY SABBATH: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862 (Savas Beatie, 2012).

Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (Doubleday, 2011).  Loved it!

Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2010).

Acquisitions, 02/02

by Kevin Levin 0

A number of you have emailed me about the possibility of purchasing signed copies of Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder.  I just agreed to do a book signing at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago on July 28.  You should be able to secure a signed copy through their Virtual Book Signing program.  I am also hoping to coordinate with the Pritzker Military Library while I am in town.

Andrew Fleche, The Revolution of 1861: The American Civil War in the Age of Nationalist Conflict (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Brian Jordan, UNHOLY SABBATH: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862 (Savas-Beatie, 2012).

Wesley Moody, Demon of the Lost Cause: Sherman and Civil War History (University of Missouri Press, 2011).

Sydney Nathans, To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Carol Reardon, With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other: The Problem of Military Thought in the Civil War North (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).