The New Civil War Handbook:
Guides and handbooks often serve as valuable study aids for serious readers, students and novices. This book is an updated version of several handbooks and guides published during the 1960s. A variety of facts and photographs from the Civil War era are presented in this single source. Section I consists of five chapters filled with facts about the organization of armies, the naming of battles and a series of useful quotations. Section II provides period photographs that include generals, soldiers, battles, technology, prisoners, women and African Americans. All have captions to enhance their value. This section would be especially useful for students and teachers. Charts and tables about numbers and losses of armies and battles and numbers of troops furnished by states are encompassed in Section III. The concluding section includes chapters on Native Americans and African Americans during the Civil War, a glossary, sites of interest, a book list and a guide to Web sites. Mark Hughes, author of Bivouac of the Dead, The Unpublished Roll of Honor and Confederate Cemeteries (two volumes), has assembled a comprehensive, albeit brief, guidebook published at a reasonable price. The New Civil War Handbook is recommended for all age groups as a quick and visually appealing reference guide. It is a much-needed update of a useful classic, William Price’s The Civil War Handbook, published during the Civil War Centennial. Reviewer: Michael Russert
Michael Russert, a member of the North Shore Round Table of Long Island and the Company of Military Historians, has a MALS plus 60 hours in American Studies. He is Coordinator of The New York State Veteran Oral History Program. |
Illustrated, glossary, book list, 158 pp., 2009. SavasBeatie, sales@savasbeatie.com, $14.95, softcover.