My Interview With David Kentner

Here's a link to a great interview I recently did with David Kentner from JournalStandard.com.

Dr. Deeb has the ability to do just that – to captivate the reader in the period, the character, as well as the events, and the consistent reviews his work receives only serve to verify it.

His attention to detail and skillful portrayal of life have been recognized in that he now also writes book reviews for The Civil War News and New York Journal of Books.

Read the whole interview.

Review of Nathaniel Philbrick's Novel The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn

As every schoolboy knows, George Armstrong Custer and 230 men of his beloved 7th Cavalry were massacred on June 25th 1876, by Indians led by Chief Sitting Bull at the battle of the Little Bighorn.

Much has been written of this battle and the men involved. Custer's widow, Libby devoted the remainder of her life to assuring her husband's enshrinement as a hero. Buffalo Bill Cody immortalized Custer and Sitting Bull in his traveling Wild West show when he ended each performance with a reenactment of the 'Last Stand'.

Nathaniel Philbrick's complete presentation of his exhaustive research attempts to bring the reader to a clear understanding of the forces involved in this tragedy. He goes far beyond a focus on one or two of those involved. Instead, we are made to realize that the actions of Custer, Sitting Bull and the other personalities involved, were more influenced by the pressures of their time and place than by their own personalities.

Read the rest of this review at: www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War A Novel by Donald Stoker

Of the thousands of books written about the conduct of the American Civil War, precious few have devoted any space explaining how each side sought to achieve its political objectives: the strategy employed to win the conflict. Donald Stoker devotes this study to fill that gap.

When a war breaks out, leaders of the belligerent powers must identify the political objective they desire: the why of the conflict. Once this is done, the stage is set to develop a grand strategy for success: a formula for achieving that political objective. This is followed by the identification of the specific military tactics needed to achieve that victory.

Early in his work, Stoker points out that the leaders in the American Civil War did identify their overall political objective for going to war; and did so very quickly. The majority of the people living in seven of the slave-holding states wanted to leave the United States in order to from a new political entity; they were joined by four additional slave states after Lincoln called for troops to suppress the 'rebellion'. Once Fort Sumter was fired upon, the majority of the people living in the non-slave holding United States opposed secession and supported Lincoln's desire to restore the anti-bellum union.

Read more at www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Review of For All The Tea in China A Civil War Novel by Sarah Rose

Sara Rose begins her story "For All the Tea in China", this way. "There was a time when maps of the world were redrawn in the name of plants, when two empires, Britain and China went to war over two flowers: the poppy and the camellia." Could this actually have been the case? Were tea and opium of such great importance? Let us examine her case.

Centuries past, England's Queen Elizabeth gave the East India Company a monopoly of all British trade in the Far East. That included the control of India and all things produced there, like opium. For two hundred years thereafter the Company exported this addictive product from India to China. The Chinese, who had an almost complete monopoly on the production and processing of tea, exchanged this mild stimulant for the addictive opium: so history records.

Read more at: civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Larry Elliot Channel 12 Interview with Mike Deeb

Here's a video of the interview I had with Larry Elliot of Flint's channel 12 during my latest speaking tour through Michigan.

Review of Blue-Eyed Devil A Civil War Novel by Robert B. Parker

"Blue-Eyed Devil", is the fourth novel in Robert Parker's Cole/Hitch series.

Virgil Cole and his sidekick Everett Hitch have returned to the small dusty town of Appaloosa. An ambitious fellow named Amos Callico has taken their former position of police chief in this isolated town. But, the new police chief is selective in responding when local saloons needed protection from area cowboys who drink a bit too much and overzealous customers who abuse ladies of the evening.

So, these local businessmen greet Virgil and Everett with a proposal.

"All of us got the same problem," Speck said. "And we thought you boys might be able to help us."

It seemed that the chief of police charges a monthly 'safeguard - fee' of each Appaloosa businessman. But, they complained, payment does not guarantee protection.

Read more of this Civil War Novel book review at www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.