Last December I started the tradition of sharing a complete list of books that I during the year, so I thought that since it doesn't look like I'll be finishing any more by the end of this year that I would share the 2018 version here on Christmas Day. Like last year, I'll highlight those that I found particularly informative, enjoyable, or otherwise really liked. Here goes:
1. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip Hop's Early Years by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
2. An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman by Lauren Cook Burgess
3. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 by Herbert Gutman
4. Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain by Brian Matthew Jordan
5. A Union Indivisible: Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South by Michael D. Robinson
6. Madness Rules the Hour: Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War by Paul Starobin
7. The American Dreams of John B. Prentis, Slave Trader by Kari J. Winter
8. Stark Mad Abolitionists: Lawrence, Kansas, and the Battle Over Slavery in the Civil War Era by Robert K. Sutton.
9. The F Street Mess: How Southern Senators Rewrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Alice Elizabeth Malavasic
10. Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War by Christian McWhirter
11. Grant by Ron Chernow
12. Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine by Kelley F. Deetz
13. The Great Fire of Petersburg, Virginia by Tamara J. Eastman
14. The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead by Meg Groeling
15. The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America by Edward Ayers
16. Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in the Age of Jackson by Christina Snyder
17. Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier's Odyssey by Robert C. Plumb
18. Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War by Elizabeth S. Pryor
19. A Melancholy Affair at the Weldon Railroad: The Vermont Brigade, June 23, 1864 by David Farris Cross
20. Letters to Amanda: The Civil War Letters of Marion Hill Fitzpatrick, Army of Northern Virginia, edited by Jeffrey Lowe and Sam Hodges
21. Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing by Christopher Hager
22. Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia, edited by Caroline Janney
23. Marching Home: Union Veterans and their Unending Civil War by Brian Matthew Jordan
24. Southern Pamphlets on Secession: November 1860 to April 1861, edited by Jon L. Wakelyn
25. We Were in Power Eight Years: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
26. Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South by Kari Leigh Merritt
27. The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory by Matthew C. Hulbert
28. Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet by D. H. Dilbeck
29. A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg, Vol. 1, The Crossing of the James to the Crater by A. Wilson Greene
30. Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat by Jonathan Steplyk
31. Strike the Blow for Freedom: The 6th United States Colored Infantry by James M. Paradis
32. Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation by Earl J. Hess
33. Almost Free: A Story about Family and Race in Antebellum Virginia by Eva Sheppard Wolf
34. Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American Civil War by Brian Steel Wills
35. Confederate Supply by Richard D. Goff
36. My Brother's Keeper: African Canadians and the American Civil War by Brian Prince
37. Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps, edited by Henry L. Swint
38. The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in American by Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey
39. The Loyal Republic: Traitors, Slaves, and the Remaking of Citizenship in Civil War America by Erik Mathisen
40. A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration by Steven Hahn
41. Secessionists and Other Scoundrels: Selections from Parson Brownlow's Book, edited by Stephen V. Ash
42. The Confederacy is on Their Way Up the Spout: Letters to South Carolina, 1861-1864, edited by J. Roderick Heller and Carolynn A. Heller
43. Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army by Eugene L. Meyer
45. John Brown Speaks: Letters and Statements from Charlestown, edited by Louis DeCaro, Jr.
46. Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero by Cate Lineberry
47. Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It by Susannah J. Ural
48. Slavery in the Clover Bottoms: John McClain;s Narrative of His Live in Slavery and during the Civil War, edited by Jan Furman
49. Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy by Richard Nelson Current
50. A Fierce Glory: Antietam - The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery by Justin Martin
51. No Freedom Shrieker: The Civil War Letters of Union Soldier Charles Biddlecom, edited by Katherine Aldridge
52. Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery by Katrina Dyonne Thompson
53. The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War by Joanne B. Freeman
54. Civil War Barons: The Tycoons, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Visionaries Who Forged Victory and Shaped a Nation by Jeffry D. Wert
55. Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation by John R. Neff
56. Calculating the Value of the Union: Slavery, Property Rights, and the Economic Origins of the Civil War by James L. Huston
57. Hood's Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy's Most Celebrated Unit by Susanah J. Ural
58. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
59. The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History - Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle by Margaret S. Creighton
60. From "Superman" to Man by Joel Augustus Rogers
Well, I fell one book short of last year's total of 61, but completing better than a book a week is not too bad. 2019 has a number of great history releases coming, and there is always my ever-growing "to be read" shelf. Merry Christmas! And happy reading in the New Year!
Tim, I hope that I can read half that many books over the next year. I did receive for Christmas two interesting books - Silent Witness The Civil War through Photography and its Photographers authored by Ron Field and The Untold Civil War Exploring the Human Side of War by James Robertson.
ReplyDeleteBeing a former resident of Frankfort, a new book might be of interest to you. It is titled Historic Frankfort Yesterday & Today. This book was put together by Nicky Hughes and Russ Hatter. The book compares historic photographs to recent photos of the same locale. As Mr. Hughes states in the Introduction: "While some comparisons do reveal what any rational person would perceive as improvements, far too many of them - in the view of the dedicated historic preservationists who have prepared this book - reveal loss to the community. Loss of fine old buildings; loss of neighborhoods; loss of community; loss of inspiration; loss of memory; loss of individuality and variety; loss of creativity."
Hi Paul, The photography book sounds great, and we have The Untold Civil War at our library at work.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to meet both Nicky and Russ when I was in Frankfort. Both have a wealth of knowledge about Frankfort's early history. Their book sounds like a great read. The quote you include is so true for Frankfort's built environment history. Thanks for sharing!
Tim