My Brother's Face: Portraits of the Civil War in Photographs, Diaries, and Letters - Softcover

Authors Phillips and Axelrod, both of whom have written previously about the American West, have mined the lodes of photographic material in the National Archives and the U.S. Military History Institute to produce a powerful evocation of the faces of war. Photography made the Civil War immediate and real to those who lived through it. The poses in these photographs are striking, but the book's overall effect is diminished by its skimpy prose and narrow lens. Rather than placing the images in context, the authors are content to present them mainly as works of art. For a fuller, more meaningful photographic portrait of the war, librarians should turn to William C. Davis's Touched by Fire ( LJ 1/86) and Geoffrey C. Ward's The Civil War ( LJ 9/1/90). My Brother's Face is best laid on a coffee table.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.