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. ( )

What strikes one at first about this fine book is its readability. From the first page, an essay on the classic Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, the prose rings true and is difficult to put down. The catalog of authors reviewed extends from Confederate ladies to soldiers who might have been lost to history if not included in this tome. This book belongs beside any library that includes the history of Shelby Foote or the poetry of Walt Whitman. ( )

In 1962, when the book was published, one of the greatest literary critics of the era wrote a thick book about Civil War literature that doesn't include a single reference to writing by African American authors. Not only no Solomon Northup, but also no Frederick Douglass...an unthinkable lack of vision about "Civil War literature" that makes this interesting reading on a whole other level.

The first essay is about Harriet Beecher Stowe; I read with interest that Uncle Tom's Cabin was out of print from the late 1880's until the late 1940's.

David Blight wrote an interesting article about this book in Slate, titled "Edmund Wilson's Patriotic Gore is Not Really Much Like Any Other Book By Anyone," link here:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/03/edmund_wilson_s_patriotic_gor..... ( )

Relying heavily on primary sources, such as diaries and letters, Wilson presents the Civil War era in a more compelling fashion than many accounts that are more didactic or linked to preconceived themes and premises. His insights into what these sources reveal about the nature of war and how it is viewed in the moment versus revisionist history help to shed more light on how this terrible conflict occurred and how it affected people who lived through it. An excellent book. ( )

Wilson discusses an obscure subject of an historically turbulent period and not only explains the transformation of American letters but the social and cultural underpinnings that led to the evolution of American literature. If a great book is one that is written well, interesting, and enlightening than this is a great book. ( )