The White Tecumseh: A Biography of William T. Sherman (review)

334CIVIL WAR history an unexpected bonus of this masterful synthesis is that it reminds us of how little we know about some aspects of the war and the men who fought it. Daniel E. Sutherland University of Arkansas The White Tecumseh:A Biography of William T. Sherman. By Stanley P. Hirshon. (New York: John Wiley Sons, 1997. Pp. xiv, 455. $30.00.) The 1990s have seen an explosion in Sherman historiography. Books appearing in recent years include Charles Royster, The Destructive War, William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and The Americans (1992); Joseph E. Ewing, Sherman at War; Charles Edmund Vetter, Sherman: Merchant ofTerror, Advocate of Peace (1992); Albert Castel, Decision in the West (1993); John F. Marszalek, Sherman, A Soldier's Passionfor Order (1993); Mark Cobum, Terrible Innocence, General Sherman at War (1993); Michael Fellman, Citizen Sherman, A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman (1995); Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Strategy Toward Southern Civilians 1861— 1865 (1995); and David Evans, Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in theAtlanta Campaign (1996). Joining this list is a new Sherman biography written by distinguished historian Stanley Hirshon. This period might indeed be called "Cump's Decade," as Hirshon describes it. In the preface, Hirshon briefly evaluates several of these recent books. The earlier Lloyd Lewis, Sherman Fighting Prophet (1932; paperback, 1993) and Marszalek's book, he says, are "the two best," but he says he "strongly disagreefs] with their interpretations of Sherman, revealed by the subtitle of each." As for Fellman's book, he says that he "disagree[s] with it completely." Hirshon also believes that "the theme of Sherman's life" was not the death of his father, as several authors before him have argued, but Sherman's "realization that mental instability plagued his mother's family." Continuing, Hirshon also cites himself as the only biographer to make use of regimental histories, and he believes he has "devoted far more space to his battles and marches than has any previous biographer." Finally, he insists, 'The reader will find my volume far more sympathetic than any of the others." This reviewer found that this new book indeed has some strengths, but not necessarily those cited by its author in the preface. For example, the book provides more information on the Sherman and Ewing families than any previous biography. It also covers the military aspects of his life in detail, it blends Sherman's military and personal lives appropriately, and it deals with its subject sympathetically. It discusses Sherman's life before, during, and after the CivilWar. This is all good, but it is not beyond what previous writers have done. Despite Hirshon's emphasis on the importance of regimental histories, his use of them does not help him add to the existing knowledge of Sherman's participation in the Civil War or to his personality. More importantly, Hirshon BOOK REVIEWS335 never really addresses his stated thesis. While he provides examples of family mental illness, he does not demonstrate that Sherman ever worried about the phenomenon, nor does he demonstrate a causal relationship between Sherman's psyche and those of his mentally ill relatives. The book contains interesting information, fairly presented, but with little analysis. Too often, long block quotes are substitutes for the author's own words. Throughout, Hirshon leaves unsaid what his detailed knowledge of Sherman might have led him to say. The result is a book that misses many opportunities for insight. Still, it is a fair rendering, a workmanlike biography, of the life of a complicated man, and it continues the generally sympathetic tone of recent Sherman historiography. John F. Marszalek Mississippi State University The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Edited by Steven E. Woodworth. Foreword by James M. McPherson. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 754. $99.50.) Popular interest in the Civil War shows no clear sign of abating. An astonishing number ofbooks and articles appear yearly to meet the public's seemingly insatiable appetite for the subject. The expansive market for Civil War scholarship is both a blessing and a curse; academic and nonacademic authors know theirbooks will sell and that people outside the academy will read them; but...