From Our New Book Review Editor

Originally published September 2016 · p. 2

Stephen Davis I am honored and delighted to assume responsibilities as new book Review Editor for Civil War News. Some of you may remember that from 1984 to 2005 I served as Book Review Editor for Blue & Gray Magazine. It’ll be fun to resume this activity in my new role for Jack Melton, Owner and Publisher of Civil War News. Jack and Peggy are busy strengthening our newspaper in a variety of ways. Their recent addition of color to the book cover photographs accompanying each review is just one of them. I am proud of the wide range of titles which we bring to your attention in our Book Review section. In a recent message to the publishers of Civil War books with whom we have established relationships, I listed the categories of titles I discerned in just army studies atlases battles biographies Civil War on the frontier diplomatic history economic topics essay collections flags letters/diaries/memoirs local history maps medical topics memory studies naval history political history regimentals or unit studies religious topics slavery and freed people wartime cultural studies women’s roles in the war

Wow—that’s a lot. Just as important is the large number of University presses and commercial publishers whose works we like to feature. Again, just going through the past six issues, I counted more than seventy-five. LSU, North Carolina, McFarland and History Press are among the most frequently featured. I look forward to maintaining our relationship with these “giants.” But we also remain open to small houses sending us their titles. Publisher Melton has kindly agreed to have review copies mailed to his business office—look on this page for that address in Canton, Georgia. Throughout our work, I will keep in mind the goal of our Book

Review section as articulated by Ed Bonekemper back in November 2010. “One of my challenges,” Ed wrote, “is to ensure that we at CWN obtain copies of all significant Civil War-related books so that our reviewers can provide you, our readers, with an analysis of each of them in a reasonably timely manner.” We like to think that Civil War News publishes more quality book reviews per issue than any other Civil War publication in the country. This is not easy work. To assist our efforts, at Publisher Melton’s very good suggestion, we have formed a Civil War News Book Review Advisory Board, consisting of a few well-respected Civil War experts to whom we can turn for advice. We staked out several slots for our Board: a distinguished professor, a prominent publisher and an experienced public historian. I am delighted that three eminently qualified individuals have stepped forth to join me on our Advisory Board: Steven E. Woodworth, Professor of History, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth TX; Theodore P. Savas, Managing Director of Savas Beatie LLC, El Dorado Hills Calif.; and Gordon L. Jones, Senior Military Historian, Atlanta History Center. Steve, Ted, Gordon and I look forward to conversations about the state of Civil War literature and the art of book reviewing. Our Book Review section will undoubtedly benefit from such discussions. So we’re off and running. I look forward to serving you all in the days ahead….Stephen can be reached at [email protected]