Struggle for a Vast Future

[matthew mckeon]

I've just finished the recent book of essays "Struggle for a Vast Future."
It's pretty good. Some of the introductory essays would be suitable for beginners, and I may use them for class. I thought a very strong essay was the comparsion between Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, which firmly rejects one Lincoln biographer who stated if the two men switched places, the South would have won.(a recent thread on this forum).

There was also a nice summary of the methods of intelligence gathering and distribution with full marks given to the BMI of the Army of the Potomac and Rosecrans' innovative "information maps" updated daily and distributed to his commanders. It doesn't mention Jackson's famous gigantic map of the Valley, a key tool in his planning of operations.

Two thumbs up anyway.

p.s. good overview of naval operations, and the foreign relations of both the US and Confederacy.