Women and the American Civil War: an Annotated Bibliography.

By Theresa McDevitt. Bibliographies and Indexes in Women's Studies. (Westport, Conn., and London: Praeger, 2003. Pp. x, 245. $64.95, ISBN 0-313-32105-1.) This volume, one in a series called Bibliographies and Indexes in Women's Studies published by Praeger, will be much appreciated by both historians of American women and scholars of the Civil War. The editor begins with a brief, context-setting introduction, followed by citations to 796 books, articles, and internet sites arranged alphabetically by category (reference works; introductory works and anthologies; soldier's aid; medical and relief service; aid to freedpeople; economic challenges and opportunities; women in the war zone; spies, scouts, smugglers, and raiders; women in camp; and other topics not fully explored), the whole made accessible by a subject and author index. The bibliographical citations are sufficiently complete to allow interested scholars to track them down (although ISBN numbers are not given for books), and the annotations range from two or three sentences to meaty paragraphs. The annotations clearly indicate the topic and scope of the material discussed in the relevant citations; consequently, this should be an unusually useful book to students as well as established scholars.