| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.2 | The History Cooperative

Jeffrey N. Lash. A Politician Turned General: The Civil War Career of Stephen Augustus Hurlbut. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. 2003. Pp. xi, 300. $49.00.
Biography is the most popular form of historical reporting. The Civil War is the most popular period in American history. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that every major figure in the struggle of the 1860s has been the subject of more biographical dissection than the field needs or deserves. With a wide assortment of studies available on all of the principal participants, a trend of late has been to locate a minor official for whom some source material is available, and then to produce a book in the main emphasizing how overlooked that individual has been for all of the years since Appomattox.	1
Fortunately, this is not such a book. Jeffrey N. Lash has written an honest and highly revealing study of one of too many politicians who were appointed generals in the Civil War by presidents investing in future political gains. Stephen A. Hurlbut was of that class variously termed "military politicians" or "political generals." Nash sees Hurlbut as a "militarily inclined party politician" (pp. vii–viii) and meticulously proves his point.	. . .

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