Book Review

Methods/Theory

As is well known, historical writing about the American Civil War is a major aspect of American book publishing; currently, books appear with such frequency that only specialists in the field are able to keep up. For reasons not entirely clear, the sectional conflict has become Americans' favorite war. This unusual book is an effort to catalogue the wide range of such writings. It is said by its distinguished editors, James M. McPherson and William J. Cooper, Jr., to provide a forum in which "recognized specialists provide authoritative, interpretive guides to the historical literature in their respective fields" of expertise (p. 3). The essays are intended to "present a wide ranging discussion of the history of writing the history of the Civil War" (p. 1). The twelve contributors also take the opportunity to set forth areas of Civil War history that have been neglected and need attention.	1
A review of the book would seem to require an identification of the experts and their subject matters. Thus, Gary W. Gallagher discusses the literature about northern strategy and military policy. Emory M. Thomas turns this coin and writes of writing about Confederate strategy and military policy, Joseph T. Glatthaar discusses the history of literary attention to battlefield tactics, and Reid Mitchell describes the study of Civil War soldiers, North and South, and their soldiering. Lincoln scholar Mark E. Neely, Jr., describes historians' comparisons of the presidential leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Michael E. Holt and George C. Rable, respectively, discuss the history of scholarship concerned with northern and Confederate politics during the war.	2
The Civil War was uniquely concerned with constitutional questions in its inception and as it proceeded. Michael Les Benedict discusses the literature tending to these aspects of the war. Phillip Shaw Paludan, also a Lincoln scholar, discusses the written social and economic history of the North, and James L. Roark attends to the treatment of the literature of Confederate economy and society. Drew Gilpin Faust concerns herself with the literature's treatment of women and gender in the Civil War. The essays conclude with Peter Kolchin's account of the history of writing about slavery and freedom in the Civil War South.	3
Almost all of the essays are worthwhile; several are exceptional in that they contain substantive data and the essayists' insights with respect to their subjects. I was especially impressed by Gallagher's discussion of writing about northern strategy and military policy, which features an excellent account of the factors of slavery and emancipation. Gallagher begins by dissenting from the common assertion that the defeat of the Confederacy was a foregone conclusion. Conceding the northern material advantages at the outset, he argues that "suppressing the Confederate rebellion" presented "a formidable task" (p. 8), given the sheer size of the Confederacy—750,000 square miles—and its capacity to raise large armies with professional soldiers as leaders. Both Confederate leadership and foreign observers believed credibly that the likelihood of the Union conquering the Confederacy was an impossibility. The contrary view—secession as a forlorn hope—Gallagher attributes to the Lost Cause myth that deprecated Northern leadership and military skill.	. . .