Reviews

Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War by Edmund Wilson

mkesten's review against another edition

4.0

I don't often read books of literary essays anymore, but Wilson was a very fine critic and he brings to light some interesting writers of the Civil War era I hadn't come across before. He also reminds me that Reconstruction was a failed experiment that the Americans should have learned from before they dismantled the Iraqi state. How hard it is to impose democratic institutions where none had been before.

lev0001's review

challenging informative slow-paced

3.5

zachkuhn's review

5.0

I thought I knew a lot about the Civil War and as usual I was wrong.