The Civil War Monitor magazine has published its list of the best books on 2021 on the Civil War Era. Most such lists consist of books voted on by an anonymous panel. The Monitor list is a collection of picks by individual historians. Each historian picks one “Best Book” and one “Honorable Mention.” The historians write several paragraphs on their picks. This issue is one of the most anticipated every year, and this year was no disappointment. I am going to list each historian’s choices, but I urge you to pick up the Winter 2021 issue to read why these were “The Best.”
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Brian Matthew Jordan picked A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation by John Matteson as his Best Book. He describes the book as “utterly absorbing history.” His Honorable Mention is Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction by Kate Masur. He calls it a “smart, timely, and capacious history.”
Jennifer Murray, an expert on the Battle of Gettysburg, picked Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command by Kent Masterson Brown as her Best Book. She says it is “meticulously researched and masterfully written.” Her Honorable Mention is A Contest of Civilizations: Exploring the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era. She calls the book “engaging and provoking.”
Kathryn Shively, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, named The Generals’ Civil War: What their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today by Stephen Cushman as her best Book. She says that the book is “quirky but marvelous.” The Science of Abolition: How Slaveholders Became the Enemies of Progress by Eric Herschthal is her Honorable Mention. She says the book is a “fresh line of intellectual advance.”
Civil War Talk Radio host Gerry Prokopowicz named Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army After Appomattox by Caroline Janney as his Best Book. He writes that “every chapter will satisfy.” His Honorable Mention is Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command by Kent Masterson Brown which he says is “a convincing defense of the battlefield generalship of George Meade.”
Kevin Levin, historian of Civil War Memory, also chose Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army After Appomattox by Caroline Janney as his Best Book. Janney shows that “surrender was anything but peaceful,” according to Levin. Levin had two picks for Honorable Mention. Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command by Kent Masterson Brown which he says “succeeds brilliantly.” His other Honorable Mention is Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction by Gordon Rhea. Levin calls this the story of a “remarkable life.”
Here are my reviews of books that made the list:
Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army After Appomattox by Caroline Janney
Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction by Kate Masur
Have your read any of these books? What are your thoughts?
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