Blood & Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest BY DONALD S. FRAZIER TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS, 376 PAGES, $14.75 – In 1860 when the Confederacy attempted to become an independent, slaveholding republic with dreams of imperial expansion, they were following… Continue Reading
Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South BY KERI LEIGH MERRITT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 372 PAGES, $24.55 – Keri Leigh Merritt’s work, Masterless Men, is a fascinating and long overdue examination of the difficult relationship between Southern… Continue Reading
The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies BY ALAN TAYLOR VINTAGE BOOKS, 640 PAGES, $14.61 – Historians are fond of complicating popular historical narratives, but few do so as enjoyably as Alan Taylor… Continue Reading
Letter from Washington to Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress, concerning a proposed joint Franco-American attack on British-Canada. Washington to Henry Laurens, (November 14, 1778) Dear Sir: This will be accompanied by an official letter on the subject of… Continue Reading
The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire BY STEPHEN KINZER ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN, 336 PAGES, $9.89 – By the end of the 19th century, America’s borders had spread across the continent from shore to shore.… Continue Reading
American Empire: A Global History BY A.G. HOPKINS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 960 PAGES, $21.49 – The Cold War is popularly portrayed as a tense but relatively non-violent stand off between Soviet style Communism and Western Democracy. However, for most of… Continue Reading
This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy BY MATTHEW KARP HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 368 PAGES, $26.95 – The Antebellum South has traditionally been portrayed as regressive and sectional, defensively focused on preserving slavery in the… Continue Reading
Alexander H. Stephens, Diary entry, (June 5, 1865): Wonder and surprise have been expressed in a number of papers at the suddenness and completeness of the collapse of the Confederate Cause, etc. This wonder and surprise proceed from lack of accurate knowledge of public… Continue Reading
Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth BY HOLGER HOOCK BROADWAY BOOKS, 576 PAGES, $13.89 – It was a deceptively lovely Autumn day in the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, but the residents desperately trying to evacuate had little time to appreciate… Continue Reading
Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth BY HOLGER HOOCK BROADWAY BOOKS, 576 PAGES, $13.89 – While the American Revolution was not necessarily a religious war, adherents to particular religious denominations often fell more predominantly on one side of the conflict… Continue Reading