Storia della guerra civile americana (review)

BOOK REVIEWS83 father of those who led, both North and South, in the Civil War. This is indeed a biography of the Academy, and the subject is far from deceased. The book is methodical in style, never depending on "writing" for substance . The author allows the intrinsic spirit of the Point to come through on its own without embellishment. West Point has had its failures, has made many mistakes, is superior in some things, inferior in others. But in the long run it has fulfilled its duty, and in today's world it is rather unique in higher education in its concentration on development of character , with loyalty, honor, ethics and integrity uppermost. These attributes are what make the Academy shine out and what created the generally stellar leadership we have had in the wars from Mexico to Viet Nam, and particularly in our own civil conflict. West Point has served its graduates well, and they, in turn, have served the nation in more than full payment for their education. E. B. LoNC Chicago, Illinois Storia della guerra civile americana. By Raimondo Luraghi. (Turin: Giulio Einaudi, 1966. Pp. xl, 1395. L.8000.) A massive monument, this, to the care with which American history is now studied abroad. Luraghi, professor of American history at the University of Genoa, has himself inspected many of the major battle sites, and gained the feel of immediacy from manuscript collections in several American libraries. Both in the notes to each chapter and in his annotated bibliography, which covers fifty-seven pages, he shows awareness of earlier and recent work alike and assesses it well. While he breaks little fresh ground, Luraghi shows independence of judgment. Basically the volume is an extended narrative account of military and naval operations, with only so much of the political side as seems necessary to serve as companion; the maps are abundant and correlate well with the clearly written text. In the opening section (226 pages), however, Luraghi displays his ability at general synthesis by surveying American culture and development in the decades just before the Civil War, a broad panorama which yet has space to display nuances of feelings in North and South. The economic disparities of the two sections are well stated, but the author finds the most basic differences neither in slavery nor in economics. In his view, repeated again at the conclusion, North and South were really separate nations. Relatively impartial as between the two, still he feels that the South had lost its cause politically and morally before the decisions of the battlefields. What may be accounted as Italian in the treatment? Certainly there is little or no concession to an Italian reader in the details of armaments, course of battles, geographical description, or the like. Only occasionally are European paraUels drawn, as between the agricultural patterns of the South and the worse conditions of the contemporary Mezzogiorno. The 84CIVIL WAR HISTORY strategic thinking of Civil War generals is skillfully linked with the teachings of Jomini; but Luraghi simply underlines, rather than belabors, the degree to which the Civil War presaged the two World Wars. In the end, the striking quality of these many pages is their juncture of careful scholarship and literary skill. On landscapes Luraghi can be poetic; he is a master of the dramatic, as in the providential appearance of the Monitor; his character sketches are firm, clear, evocative (especially so of Jefferson Davis). Typographical errors and faulty references need not be itemized here, and are few. Only rarely does Luraghi show weakness in comprehending American institutions of the time, as in his surprise that Lincoln did not conduct a vigorous Presidential campaign. The most persistent misspelling is "Rosencrans." Perhaps only an Italian would think of the illuminating comparison between Grant and Scipio Africanus, the victor over Hannibal. Chester G. Starr University of Illinois Travels in the Southland, 1822-1823: The Journal of Lucius Verno Bierce. Edited by George W. Knepper. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1966. Pp. x, 131. $4.50. ) This small book represents a considerable labor of love on the part of Dean George W. Knepper of Akron University. Travels in the Southland, 1822-1823 is Dean Knepper's...