Greetings and welcome to the official digital headquarters of book reviews for The Civil War Monitor. In much the same way that printed editions of the Monitor will attempt to bridge the unfortunate chasm that still divides many professional scholars from broader historical audiences, this space, harnessing the infinite reach of the Internet, will attempt to charge that goal head on. Through author interviews, guest literary lists, and—you guessed it—solicited book reviews of the most pertinent, cutting-edge Civil War scholarship, we hope to foster new degrees of accessibility and interaction between academic historians and the interested public; a public whose attention, cooperation, and aid will ultimately constitute a vital step in the long-term fight to keep departments growing, presses printing, battlefields protected, and young people learning about the Civil War at various levels of public education. With this in mind, all book reviews composed for the Monitor will be hosted exclusively by this digital domain–aptly titled “The Bookshelf.” Taking full advantage of our digital space constraints (more appropriately, our lack thereof), reviews for the Monitor will generally range between 750 and 1000 words—a notable increase in size over the vast majority of academic journals, newsletters, and popular history magazines. It is our intention that this upshot in allowed wordage will translate directly into better developed, better contextualized, and therefore more accessible reviews for a wider range of readers. In short, our top priority here is to provide honest, well-written, and interesting reviews on a regular basis.
Your humble book review editor, Matthew C. Hulbert (B.A., Florida; M.A., NC State), is currently a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Georgia in Athens. My areas of research include the American South and the eras of the Civil War and Reconstruction, with a particular interest in Confederate guerrillas, the Border South, and social memory.
– If you are interested in penning a book review for The Civil War Monitor, please contact me via email with your CV or other credentials attached.
– If you are interested in having your book reviewed by The Civil War Monitor, also feel free to contact me via email with media information.
All the best,
MCH
[email protected]
