Booknotes II (Mar '13)

New Arrivals:

1. James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War ed. by John W. Quist and Michael J. Birkner (Univ of Florida Pr, 2013).

From the chapter headings [click on the link above to see the TOC] this promises to be a stimulating conversation about the man and his much maligned presidency.

2. William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War: Consequences for a Southern Man of Letters edited by David Moltke-Hansen (Univ of SC Pr, 2013).

From the publisher: "This collection of essays by historians and literary scholars first explores William Gilmore Simms's antebellum treatment of the role of warfare in America's past and the South's future. The contributors then consider the impact of the secession crisis, the Civil War, and the Confederate defeat on Simms's and other white and black Southerners' perceptions of their much-changed world. Next Simms's life, published writings, and thoughts during the war and its aftermath are examined. Finally Simms's late poetry and fictions, especially explicit and implicit commentaries on the postwar South, are analyzed. His last oration, The Sense of the Beautiful, published shortly before his death in 1870, is the subject of several essays."

Hopefully, the editor takes after Moltke the Elder more than his vastly less talented nephew.

3. Mosby's Raids in Civil War Northern Virginia by William S. Connery (The Hist Pr, 2013).

A brief summary of the Civil War partisan operations and post war years of the Gray Ghost.