Confederate Generals: Life Portraits

Civil War News

Readers will find Confederate Generals perhaps the best one volume consideration of the full panoply of Southern military leadership. This thought provoking, well-researched book is written with flowing elegance. Both the novice student of Civil War history as well as seasoned enthusiast will find the work a fine, succinct consideration of the passions that fashioned the Southern commander and that continue to shape today's dialogues on the conflict.

Library Journal

Journalist and amateur historian Cantor presents a pictorial history of Civil War leaders, profiling 20 Confederate generals from favorites Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson to less well known leaders Jubal Early and Robert Toombs. He pays close attention to each general's most important military actions and discusses their lives both before and after the war, offering entertaining anecdotes and an impressive array of photographs, some very rare. Neither scholarly nor particularly well written, his book is essentially a popular history for Civil War buffs that rehashes familiar stories and offers no new interpretations. Cantor relies mostly on secondary sources, many of which are outdated, and he supplies no footnotes. As a result, this work pales in comparison with other pictorial histories such as the six-volume The Civil War Times Illustrated Photographic History of the Civil War (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1994), edited by William C. Davis and Bell I. Wiley. Still, Cantor's book does possess two strengths: it is a unique single-volume treatment of Confederate leaders that would serve well as a quick reference guide, and the photographs are expressive and detailed. More a coffee-table book than a serious work of history, this work is appropriate for large public libraries.--Rhonda L. Smith, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\