[Extreme Civil War: Guerrilla Warfare, Environment, and Race on the Trans-Mississippi Frontier by Matthew M. Stith (Louisiana State University Press, 2016). Hardcover, map, photos, notes, bibliography, index. Pages: 230. ISBN:978-0-8071-6314-6. $42.50] The Civil War as total war has been a topic of discussion on this blog and on many others; not to mention for a long time in publications and among historians. Though Mark Grimsley’s study The Hard Hand War, for…

The Civil War era as a topic for Hollywood films has resulted in at best mixed results. Recent films like Lincoln and Glory were enjoyable and their presentation of history admirable. Remember, they are movies and will not ever be historically accurate enough for people. The Free State of Jones is based mostly on a book by Victoria E. Bynum. The movie tells the true story of Newton Knight who…