The New York Times has a review written by S.C. Gwynne of two new books on the Civil War and Reconstruction. Here are substantial excerpts from the review: What was the Civil War about? In a word, slavery. What actually caused the war, however, is a vastly more difficult idea. Try this explanation on for size: The driving force in American politics in the decades after the American Revolution was the rise of an arrogant, ruthless, parasitic oligarchy in the South, built on a foundation of Christian religion and a vision of permanent, God-ordained economic inequality. Though much of t ..read more

James: A Novel by Percival Everett published by Doubleday (2024) I read a lot of books. Right before my stroke, I was reading more than fifty books every year. Many of my friends think that I re-read my favorite books often, but except for two books, I have never read a book more than once. One of the two books is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I read it once in high school, once as a college student, and I read it out loud to my son Tim when he was a little boy. I left out a few of the N– Words in the book. For all the problems with Huck Finn, like the bizarre ending in which Tom Sawyer make ..read more

Gerry Prokopowicz, host of Civil War Talk Radio, interviews Harold Holzer, author of “Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration.” The discussion is an hour long and Holzer gets into some interesting points about immigration and immigrant units from 160 years ago. Note that Holzer’s voice is a bit scratchy! Just click the “Play” button at the bottom. If you want to read my review of the book, here it is. The post Podcast: Harold Holzer Talks About His New Book on Lincoln and the Immigrants appeared first on The Reconstruction Era ..read more

Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration by Harold Holzer published by Dutton (2024) Harold Holzer is one of the foremost scholars of Abraham Lincoln and his presidency. I was at a talk back a decade ago in which he was a participant and I was surprised to hear him discuss issues of immigration during the Civil War Era with a great deal of sophistication. When I heard a couple of years ago that Holzer was working on a book examining Lincoln’s views on immigration and his interactions with immigrants, I felt that he was the perfect author to take this subject on ..read more

Fergus M. Bordewich, author of “Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction,” is on Civil War Talk Radio with Gerry Prokopowicz. An hour-long discussion, Bordewich describes President Grant’s campaign to stop Klan terrorism in South Carolina that was fundamentally restricting African Americans’ rights as American citizens. You can read my review here. The post Fergus M. Bordewich Author of “Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction,” Is on Civil War Talk Radio Podcast appeared first on The Reconstruction Era ..read more

Gerry Prokopowicz has author Matthew Christopher Hulbert on to discuss his new book “Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War”. Hurlbert was a stalwart defender of slavery, progenitor of the myth of Confederate guerrillas as modern day Robin Hoods, and a mythmaker of the Jessie James gang. He was a Lost Cause propagandist and a leading opponent of Reconstruction from the West. The post Gerry Prokopowicz has author Matthew Christopher Hulbert on to Discuss His New Book “Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War” appeared first on ..read more

Gerry Prokopowicz has Elizabeth Varon to discuss her new book Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South. Because Longstreet, one of Robert E. Lee’s most accomplished subordinates, did not embrace The Lost Cause, other Southern generals invested calumnies about Longstreet. You can listen to the discussion by clicking the link below: The post Gerry Prokopowicz Has Elizabeth Varon to Discuss “Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South” on His Podcast appeared first on The Reconstruction Era ..read more

Abolitionist Twilights: History, Meaning, and the Fate of Racial Egalitarianism, 1865-1909. By Raymond James Krohn. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023, 288 pp. Paperback $35.00. While abolitionism stretched back as a movement to the 18th Century, the abolitionism of the Civil War Era was a product of the 1830s. With the massive repression of anti-slavery activists in the South by the slave states in that decade, and with slavery almost dead in the North, the abolitionist movement began a reexamination of its goals. Abolitionism always aimed to end slavery, but its objectives broadened in ..read more

Civil War Books and Authors has handed out its “Book of the Year” award for 2023. According to the well-respected book review, the top pick is; I DREAD THE THOUGHT OF THE PLACE: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign by D. Scott Hartwig (Johns Hopkins). This is the second and concluding installment in a comprehensive overview of the campaign that began after the Union defeats at the Second Bull Run and the Peninsula Campaign. The new book starts with the fighting in Sharpsburg. According to the editor, “Was there really any other choice? In addition to being an unmatc ..read more

The new book by Elizabeth Varon on Confederate General James Longstreet was recently reviewed in the New York Times by Brenda Wineapple. Here are some excerpts from her review: LONGSTREET: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, by Elizabeth R. Varon “Bad as was being shot,” the former Confederate general James Longstreet said years after he took a bullet in the neck from a fellow soldier in 1864, “being shot at, since the war, by many officers, was worse.” In the decades after being hit by friendly fire at the Battle of the Wilderness, Longstreet was pilloried and hounded by unrecons ..read more