What American Civil War Books Are You Planning On Buying/Reading Next?

R. Evans

Sergeant
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Location
Salem, Ohio
Forgive me if there is a thread like this around. I did a search and couldn't find anything.:smile:

So here goes. These 3 should be here tomorrow or Saturday. Can't wait to dive in.​
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The Real Lincoln: From the Testimony of his Contemporaries by Charles Landon Carter Minor, 1904. The book is entirely composed of quotes about Lincoln from other histories and biographies, from men who knew him.
 
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Santa was good to my Civil War library, bringing some long-requested items. The two lightest (in weight) went with me on my travels to warmer climes (California Bay Area) to visit family. Northwestern Oregon may have a relatively mild climate, but Sonoma averages 20 degrees warmer! I'd move if I could afford to live there!

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic. Finished. Helped me understand, although still not agree with, some of the pro-Confederate posts here. Lots of humor, too--I got a real charge out of the perhaps-too-realistic reenactors!

Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Equally as fascinating as her earlier Mothers of Invention.

Now for the heavier (in actual weight) and not-yet-read:

Water Lowenfels, ed., Walt Whitman's Civil War.

Noah Andre Trudeau, Lincoln 's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days That Changed a Presidency, March 24-April 8. 1865.

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. I would have started my reading with this one, but it is far too weighty for an old lady marching through airports!

When done with these, I may go back and try to finish Charles Calhoun's The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. I bogged down about 1/4 of the way through. I may just wait for Brooks Simpson to finish his long-awaited second volume, hoping it will appear before I check out of this world.
 
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Right now I'm working on filling in the gaps in my library as it pertains to Phase One of my Licensed Battlefield Guide studies. The next two books I buy will be the second and third volume of Tom Clemens's edited and annotated version of Ezra Carman's Maryland Campaign manuscript. After I finish filling in those gaps, I'll start focusing on beefing up my library for when I hit Phase Two and the Gettysburg Campaign itself.

As for the books to be released in 2019, at the top of my list is Jim Hessler's forthcoming book on the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg.
 
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Santa was good to my Civil War library, bringing some long-requested items. The two lightest (in weight) went with me on my travels to warmer climes (California Bay Area) to visit family. Northwestern Oregon may have a relatively mild climate, but Sonoma averages 20 degrees warmer! I'd move if I could afford to live there!

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic. Finished. Helped me understand, although still not agree with, some of the pro-Confederate posts here. Lots of humor, too--I got a real charge out of the perhaps-too-realistic reenactors!

Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Equally as fascinating as her earlier Mothers of Invention.

Now for the heavier (in actual weight) and not-yet-read:

Water Lowenfels, ed., Walt Whitman's Civil War.

Noah Andre Trudeau, Lincoln 's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days That Changed a Presidency, March 24-April 8. 1865.

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. I would have started my reading with this one, but it is far too weighty for an old lady marching through airports!

When done with these, I may go back and try to finish Charles Calhoun's The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. I bogged down about 1/4 of the way through. I may just wait for Brooks Simpson to finish his long-awaited second volume, hoping it will appear before I check out of this world.

Horwitz is quick read -- and fun! I read it last year on the 20th anniversary of its publication.

It seems to have emerged over the years that Horwitz' reenactor friend played Horwitz for a fool. Seems likely, but didn't impede my enjoyment of the book.
 
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Santa was good to my Civil War library, bringing some long-requested items. The two lightest (in weight) went with me on my travels to warmer climes (California Bay Area) to visit family. Northwestern Oregon may have a relatively mild climate, but Sonoma averages 20 degrees warmer! I'd move if I could afford to live there!

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic. Finished. Helped me understand, although still not agree with, some of the pro-Confederate posts here. Lots of humor, too--I got a real charge out of the perhaps-too-realistic reenactors!

Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Equally as fascinating as her earlier Mothers of Invention.

Now for the heavier (in actual weight) and not-yet-read:

Water Lowenfels, ed., Walt Whitman's Civil War.


Noah Andre Trudeau, Lincoln 's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days That Changed a Presidency, March 24-April 8. 1865.

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. I would have started my reading with this one, but it is far too weighty for an old lady marching through airports!

When done with these, I may go back and try to finish Charles Calhoun's The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. I bogged down about 1/4 of the way through. I may just wait for Brooks Simpson to finish his long-awaited second volume, hoping it will appear before I check out of this world.


Trudeau's book on Lincoln is a great read. I went through it quickly. Enjoy it!
 
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I'm thinking of buying Kill Jeff Davis, Bruce Venter's book on the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. I've been hearing good things about it, and it seems to be the most thorough treatment of the raid available.
 
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My latest tilt has been to try and understand how the war effected those in the PNW and our connections to the politics of the era. In addition to getting copies of a number of journal articles I ordered four books:

Berwanger, Eugene H. The West and Reconstruction.
McArthur, Scott. The Enemy Never Came: The Civil War in the Pacific Northwest.
Etulain, Richard W. Lincoln and Oregon Country Politics in the Civil War Era.
Mahoney, Barbara S. Mahoney. The Salem Clique: Oregon's Founding Brothers.

I just finished The Enemy Never Came and it was a good overview and the only book on the subject I could find. Not great but an OK job.

I've just started Lincoln and Oregon Country and it feels like it'll be a good read. Lincoln had close ties in Oregon and kept track of the politics. I have The Salem Clique and will read it next. It's about the Democrat politicians who controlled Oregon at the start of the war (and before) and the politics of the PNW. Joseph Lane was a key player. It also goes into detail about how the Democrat party split on the slavery issue in the PNW as it did in the east and how Lane's career pretty much ended when Breckinridge didn't win the presidency. I think it'll be quite interesting.

The West and Reconstruction is an old book (1981) but, again, it's the only one I could find that seems to address the subject directly. I'll just have to see. I got a used copy for almost nothing so if it's a bust I'm not out anything but a little disappointment.

So that's my reading list for a month or so.
 
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My latest tilt has been to try and understand how the war effected those in the PNW and our connections to the politics of the era. In addition to getting copies of a number of journal articles I ordered four books:

Berwanger, Eugene H. The West and Reconstruction.
McArthur, Scott. The Enemy Never Came: The Civil War in the Pacific Northwest.
Etulain, Richard W. Lincoln and Oregon Country Politics in the Civil War Era.
Mahoney, Barbara S. Mahoney. The Salem Clique: Oregon's Founding Brothers.

I just finished The Enemy Never Came and it was a good overview and the only book on the subject I could find. Not great but an OK job.

The Enemy Never Came is the only one I've read, except for a few online articles. My main beef with it was that it wasn't chronological, which to me is very important. I'll check out the others you've mentioned. Some day (when the weather improves) I'll wander downtown to the Oregon Historical Society and see what they recommend!

It was interesting that when Lane returned to Oregon after the 1860 election, he was booed in Portland, shunned in Salem but was welcomed in southern Oregon.
 
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The Enemy Never Came is the only one I've read, except for a few online articles. My main beef with it was that it wasn't chronological, which to me is very important. I'll check out the others you've mentioned. Some day (when the weather improves) I'll wander downtown to the Oregon Historical Society and see what they recommend!

It was interesting that when Lane returned to Oregon after the 1860 election, he was booed in Portland, shunned in Salem but was welcomed in southern Oregon.

Yeah, once the shooting started the state went Republican and the pro-south Democrats suddenly found themselves not very popular (outside of maybe three southern counties) and Lane's career was a casualty. After the war, though, things once again swung Democrat and Reconstruction doesn't seem to have been very popular. Democrats weren't really pro-Confederate but they were in sympathy with the slave states and were strongly in favor of territories having a choice. Democrats and Republicans were both resolute in not wanting non-whites living in Oregon (slaves or free).

I'm reading the Clique and the Lincoln now but it's too early to really give an opinion although I can say I'm finding them interesting. The Reconstruction book hasn't arrived.

If you get some recommendations I'd be most interested to know what they are. I asked a local historian and he recommended the Clique and Lincoln books. I'm discovering that the subject is a bit elusive. PM me if you find anything of note.

Our local Society has actual copies of one of the newspapers that was shut down by the military and I'm going to read some copies as I'm curious just what they said that got them shut down. Might be instructive to see just how radical the pro-south radicals really were.
 
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