Editors’ Overview

This issue illustrates the depth and reach of issues relating to Civil War history by walking readers through the chronological span of American history. It features a review essay by eminent military historian Mark Grimsley, whose “Wars for the American South: The First and Second Reconstructions Considered as Insurgencies” imaginatively combines recent scholarship from the Reconstruction and the Civil Rights eras with contemporary counterinsurgency theory. Bringing together these disparate strands of research leads him to the provocative conclusion that the hundred years after Appomattox is best understood as a century-long insurgency, a “protracted war for the American South,” which pitted “the forces of white supremacy against the forces of black liberation.”

Next, Carol Sheriff reflects on the textbook controversy that erupted in her home state of Virginia in 2010. Her essay takes a deeper historical view of the topic, finding that once a similar debate erupted on the eve of the Civil War centennial, the intensity of the politics surrounding textbook production and selection only increased. As a consequence of these disputes, the Commonwealth of Virginia came to adopt textbook standards that, in the case of the claim regarding Stonewall Jackson’s legions of “black Confederates,” allowed for the creation of new myths.

Jeremy J. Tewell’s article “Assuring Freedom to the Free: Jefferson’s Declaration and the Conflict over Slavery” explores the parallels between the famed Revolutionary document and Republicans’ conceptions of liberty during the Civil War era. Tewell contends that for some Republicans, including, most importantly, Abraham Lincoln, Americans’ failure to repudiate slavery also served as a repudiation of the natural rights ostensibly guaranteed by the Declaration, leading many Republicans to believe that all white men were “vulnerable to proslavery rationales” and might theoretically be enslaved.

Our review section expands yet again, with reviews of recent movies and documentaries. Elizabeth Leonard discusses The Conspirator, and Richard McCaslin examines PBS’s American Experience: Robert E. Lee. Our book reviews include new books on slavery, emancipation, women, and Civil War memory.

We continue to welcome ideas, comments, and submissions from our readers. Contact us at civilwarhistory@uakron.edu. Visit our website: http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/journals/civil-war-history/. We are also on Facebook: “Civil War History Journal.”