Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration Book

This was a fascinating book, part post-modernist history about the representations of a particular battle across time and mediums, part meditation on the nature of war and the specific meanings of the US Civil War, part criticism of of works of fiction about the war and histories, along with a collection of about five excellent poems by the author. There's some tremendous insight here, and some fascinating questions. The only problem with it is its lack of focus, its lack of a throughline thesis, but that is a small price to pay for general readability. Recommended for anybody trying to understand what the Civil War does and should mean to a modern audience.