Briefly Noted

“This second edition of Winter Lightning incorporates changes in traffic patterns within the battlefield and new research material. A series of twenty-one “Stops” guides the visitor through the battlefield over the exact routes used by both armies, offering informative details on the fighting along the way. The guide divides the battle into three segments: the west flank, the center, and the east flank. This approach allows visitors to follow the battle in its entirety or in any order they wish. Detailed maps and extensive primary material, including commentary by commanders, further enrich visitors’ experiences.”

” In this unique field guide, readers will find themselves transported into the rare and harsh landscape of Tennessee’s cedar glades. Loaded with clear photographs and detailed descriptions of over 140 common plants and animals, this guide will help the casual observer discover the delicate beauty of these unique landscapes. In addition this volume includes upland wildflowers commonly found in the Appalachians and along the Cumberland Plateau.”

“The Fringe Hours is like one gigantic permission slip to carve out some space in your day for the things that give you joy and feed your soul.”

“Through the use of sophisticated ceramic chronology techniques, the author documents how small farming communities like Nacimiento and Dos Ceibas grew from hamlets in the seventh century A.D. into villages with several hundred inhabitants. He traces how local elites emerged during the eighth century A.D. and built outsized residential groups.”

“Engagingly written and lavishly illustrated, “Met His Every Goal?”–intended for general readers, students, and specialists–offers a primer on Polk and a revisionist view of much of the scholarship concerning him and his era. Drawing on published scholarship as well as contemporary documents–including heretofore unpublished materials–it presents a fresh portrait of an enigmatic autocrat. And in Chaffin’s examination of an oft-repeated anecdote long accepted as fact, readers witness a case study in how historians use primary sources to explore–and in some cases, explode–received conceptions of the past.”