Reviews for John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence

The average rating for John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-08-17 00:00:00 Paul J. Gonzales McMurry's biography touched off a reassessment of John Bell Hood, and is considered a classic of the genre. It is also fair to Hood's faults and strengths. That said, McMurry's prose is dry, so while I respect the scholarship, the book was in places a slog to get through. Also, the Tennessee Offensive gets less coverage than one might expect considering Franklin and Nashville were the biggest and bloodiest battles of Hood's time as an army commander. All in all a good book and an important one in the historiography of the Army of Tennessee, but I can't call it a classic.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-04-25 00:00:00 Ruben Pothof McMurry does a great job of balancing criticism with affirmation for the general. He relies heavily on secondary sources but uses good primary sources, also. His overall structure of the book is well crafted but not balanced in detail. He focuses almost completely on the Atlanta campaign. While it is true many documents do not survive to give the reader much insight on the beginnings of his life or maybe even the end, McMurry does not flesh out the end of his life or give second hand accounts of Hood's life. However, many accounts are given for the Atlanta campaign. Overall, a better job assessing the character of the misunderstood Gen. John B. Hood than prior historians. Yet leaves the reader grasping for details in other parts of Hood's life than just the Atlanta Campaign.