Portraits of Conflict A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War (review)

tent ofher commitment to grassroots organization. In addition, Grant's attempt to remedy die oversight of the role of women in the Civil Rights movement ultimately fails; gender politics are not central to this biography. Despite diese problems, though, diis is a very significant contribution to Civil Rights movement history. Portraits of Conflict A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War By Richard B. McCaslin University ofArkansas Press, 1997 432 pp. Cloth $75.00 Reviewed by William C. Harris, professor of history at Nordi Carolina State University, and author of William Woods Holden: Firebrand ofNorth Carolina Politics, which was published by lsu Press in 1987 and won the Mayflower Cup and the Jefferson Davis Award. This attractive and well-designed photographic history fulfills in admirable fashion Richard McCaslin's objective: "to present a carefully selected array ofimages that convey the experience ofmany citizens of the North State" during the Civil War. A major strength of McCaslin's volume is the narrative account of North Carolina during the war, which places the photographs firmly in context. He also provides a useful history ofearly photography in the state and describes the contemporary process for making photographic images. His explanation of the different types ofprints and die technical problems and artistic qualities associated widi each also will be of special interest to readers, as will his inclusion ofphotographs ofUnion soldiers, freedpeople, black soldiers, and an array ofobscure and well-known figures. McCaslin provides the reader with iUuminating biographical sketches and an appendix diat oudines die postwar lives of those who survived die conflict. A few errors and questionable interpretations have crept into McCaslin 's text, but he nonetheless manages to provide an important photographic documentary of the Civil War. Reviews 89 ...