Experimental Blog #36

Comments on "Civil War Wives" - The Lives and Times of Angelina Grimke' Weld, Varina Howell Davis and Julia Dent Grant by Carol Berkin

In the acknowledgments to this book the author, Carol Berkin, writes that her "home state" is Alabama. However, she received her college degrees at the very "Yankee" schools of Barnard College and Columbia University of New York.
On the back of the book there are 8 very respectable recommendations, and the writing is very thorough and informative in all three parts.
The first part, about Agelina Grimke' Weld, is especially interesting for its relation of the conflicts and splintering within the counter-cultural abolitionist movement, among various other things about Angelina's life.
The second account, about Varina Howell Davis, is very descriptive about the "lost cause" of the American Civil War from a more Southern point of view. It seems that, except for the first several months, the war became an increasing disaster that lasted about 4 years for the Confederate States. Varina's long, vigorous, but tragic, life was very interesting to learn about.
In the third account, about Julia Dent Grant, the author sounds somewhat dismissive, maybe even ridiculing at times, about Julia and even her autobiography in some ways. However, she recognizes that Julia's book was not published until 1975. Carol Berkin also writes that Ulysses S. Grant was five feet and eight inches tall. Others say that he was at least 4 inches shorter.