BUY THIS BOOK!
So when I give this book a critical review about it, I don't want people think I am saying you shouldn't buy this book. Even good books get analyzed and some gaps seen, some paths not pursued are commented on.
I don't know how Kevin M. Levin will take my blogging on his book. I heard him speak a while back and commented I thought it was a good speech with a good delivery. I suggested an item that I thought would have made it better and supported the speeches conclusions, and Levin saw it as an attack and was somewhat bent out of shape about it. This was in his days when he had one reason or another to keep a Confederate monument.
In this case he will find legitimate cause for being irate.
For example, he refers to the book, "Black Confederates," by Charles Kelly Barrow, J.H. Segards and R.B. Rosenburg.
What I am not finding in the book was that this was originally "Forgotten Confederates," Vol. XIV of the Journal of Confederate History Series, published by Southern Heritage Press. It says it is in the frontpage of "Black Confederates" published by Pelican Publishing Co.
The development of the Black Confederate idea originates in the volumes of the Journal of Confederate History Series. Earlier there was "Black Southerners in Gray," edited by Rollins which was Vol. XI. Rollins published a book titled "Black Southerners in Gray" by Rank an File Publishing. The covers of both books are copies of the copies when they were volumes in the Journal of Confederate History Series.
The Journal of Confederate History isn't mentioned in the book, at least as far as I can find. One reason maybe that if you look at Vol. X1V of the Journal you will find a lot of prominent Civil War historians listed as being members the Editorial Advisory Board. There is Dr. Gary Gallagher, Dr. James I. Robertson, Dr. Frank Vandiver, and other prominent individuals. Dr. Anne Bailey is there.
The credibility of the whole Black Confederate idea was given a boost and launched by the Journal of Confederate History Series which could claim prominent Civil War historians on its masthead. The complicity of the Civil War historical profession in getting this Black Confederate mythology going is avoided. Again, perhaps I will find something in some paragraph which isn't in the bibliography or index or I missed it.
We see now interest in the Civil War falling off a cliff. Some of this is that a significant part of the Civil War history profession is complicit promoting basically a Civil War history with a white nationalist base. Ever the establishmentarian, Levin avoids road and paths that lead to these challenging questions.
BUT DO BUY THE BOOK. It will be very useful to thwart neo-Confederates. (I don't find the word neo-Confederate in the index.)
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