America's Civil War: The Operational Battlefield, 1861-1863

Whereas his Origins of the American Civil War (1996) was more of a political and social history, this second volume of a planned quartet by Reid (American history and military institutions, King's College London, UK), on the first two and a half years of the war, is an operational military history informed by a knowledge of political and social forces. Focusing, therefore, on generalships, command decisions, strategy, and tactics, while not ignoring the role social and political forces played in conditioning the views and attitudes (and thereby morale) of ordinary soldiers, he argues that the tactical deadlock of the first years of the war did not result solely from the inherent superiority of the power of the defensive, the rifled musket, and breastworks, as has been argued elsewhere, but also combined rampant command inexperience and failure to recognize offensive opportunities. He also discusses operational parallels and discontinuities between the American Civil War and the First and Second World Wars. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Brian Holden Reid (London, England) is professor of American history and military institutions and head of the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Council of the Society for Army Historical Research and from 1998 to 2004 served as chairman. In 2004-2005, he was the first non-American to serve as a member of the Lincoln Prize jury panel, which awards the most important literary prize in the field of Civil War history. His many books include The Origins of the American Civil War and The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century.