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The Civil War in Kentucky: Battle for the Bluegrass State. Edited by Kent Masterson Brown. (Mason City, Iowa: Savas Publishing Company, 2000. Pp. viii, 320. $29.95, ISBN 1-882810-47-3.)
"Kentucky played an unusual if not unique role in the Civil War," writes Charles P. Roland in his essay in this volume (p. 23). Unfortunately, that role is only partially explored in this new collection that mostly revisits well-worn stories. This is not to say that it does this poorly or uninterestingly. Most of the writers are the recognized authorities on their subjects, and a couple of the chapters-Lowell H. Harrison's on the state Confederate government and Kenneth W. Noe's on the battle of Perryville-are drawn from research for new book-length studies.
Battle in the subtitle should be taken literally, for every piece save Harrison's deals primarily with military topics,...