Grant Books

I took a grant writing class in college and this was one of the textbooks used. It's a good resource. It gives samples of different types of proposals, tells you how to write them, and also gives a list of resources. Pretty much a self-teaching book, you don't really need a class to use it.

This book offers specific examples, models, and step-by-step instructions on how to write all kinds of grants, from local and federal government programs to grants from private foundations and corporations. More than 300 Web sites are described, as is the use of search engines to develop better proposals. The authors also present scores of concrete writing examples and time-saving tips from successful grantseekers. (summary by South Texas Library System)
The author, Miner, has an online newsletter (Grantseeker Tips) as well, that I've subscribed to for years. Her advice is very practical and to the point. You can't go wrong with this book to guide you.

The general advice provided in this book is invaluable. After reading it cover to cover, I still revisit the main sections every time before writing an important grant. There are key bits of knowledge provided that will serve you well, and like EB White's "Elements of Style," Miner and Miner can be recommended without hesitation. Finally, this book is much more useful than both the "Dummies" grant writing book and "Foundation Center" guide.

The fascinating thing about this book is that it takes the familiar biblical account of the children of Israel leaving Egypt and going to the Promised Land and shows how it applies to each person's life. We are all slaves to various forces in our lives - addictions, anger, other people's opinions, etc. - and we all have an invitation to the promised land where we are free from those forces. This book shows how our journey parallels a journey taken thousands of years ago, and gives helpful tasks to work on at the end of each chapter. It is a great resource for groups.

Carl Jung said that alcoholism, on a primitive level, was the equivalent of a spiritual thirst. Grant Schnarr, in Return to the Promised Land, the Story of Our Spiritual Recovery, details the means of slaking that thirst. I recomend it highly for anyone on a spiritual journey. George Nash, M.D., Cottonwood Centers for Recovery

Review from Publisher's Weekly : In his latest book, Schnarr (Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential: A Twelve Step Approach) describes a method of slaking our spiritual thirsts by correlating the spiritual methods followed in 12-step recovery programs and in biblical stories of bondage and liberation. Focusing in particular on the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land, Schnarr parallels this people's liberation with his own, and other addicts', spiritual recovery and growth. Each chapter opens with several scriptural passages and a brief quote from 18th-century scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, and contains exercises designed to lead readers to recognize the tyranny of their own addictions and to move toward spiritual recovery. Schnarr's readings of the Exodus material are lively because he offers these readings through the lenses of his own recovery from alcohol addiction. The combination of personal testimony and biblical interpretation that Schnarr offers in this book will enable those seeking spiritual recovery to move "from the fury of inner spiritual warfare to lasting spiritual peace." (Apr.) -Publisher's Weekly Review from Library Journal : Schnarr, a Christian minister, draws on the psychological influence of 18th-century scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg to interpret the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt as an allegory for spiritual growth. Egypt is a symbol of the tyranny of addictions and past errors. The plagues represent spiritual conditions that we precipitate by our own doings. Wandering in the desert, the Jews grapple with hunger, thirst, enemy tribes, self-doubt, and the unshakable reality of God throughout one spiritual crisis after another. Each chapter ends with a few well-chosen exercises designed to ground the insights in practical application. Schnarr's understanding of the archetypal depths of the journey home to Canaan will inspire readers to revisit this Old Testament story. Recommended for most public libraries. -Library Journal

It is a shame that this book and its companion book on Contra Costa, Alameda and Marin counties is out of print. As old as it is, and as many new roads as there are, it is amazingly accurate. The mileage figures and grade percentages are invaluable. I use it all the time.

This book is my bible when it comes to planning cycle trips in the Santa Cruz, San Mateo area. It is an absolute necessity to plan rides of varying difficulty. It is unfortunate that it is out of print .. if you find a copy grab it quick. It is a treasure of valuable topographic and anecdotal information on all the bike routes worth riding.

This book is an incredible resource for cyclists. It is unfortunate that it hasn't been given more recent updates, or that the publisher doesn't adequately support it. The degree of topographical detail on the root profiles is unsurpassed on any books I've seen in the United Stages -- perhaps the Atlas les Cols des Alpes comes close. It fails to get a 10 because:
1. it is becoming obsolete
2. there may be some minor errors in the data

This book is very well written. Dr. Grant participated in some ofthe early clinical trials of hormone pills (those used for HRT, by the way, are the same as those used for birth control). The trials for men stopped when men started getting shriveled parts; the trials for women continued in spite of deaths of participants. Yikes. Having read this book, I will never ever again take hormone pills and will definitely be advocating different family planning methods to my friends.

This is a book which exposes much of the hype and plain misinformation peddled about these dangerous drugs -- both the Pill and HRT -- from a medical, *not* a religious or moral, standpoint. She is not against the concept of contraception, but the method used -- these powerful drugs.

What it makes clear is how these drugs are steroids, just as much as corticosteroids and anabolic steroids with many of the same effects, entirely suppressing and replacing the bodily sex hormones not only in the ovaries but also in the adrenal glands. Unsurprisingly both the Pill and HRT can be shown to hugely increase the risk of sex hormone dependent cancers such as breast cancer and other medical conditions such as thrombosis, antiphospholipid sydrome and other autoimmune disorders such as Lupus and Raynaud's syndrome in women not previously predisposed to these conditions. Dr Grant has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

Dr Grant says the lowered doses in more recent drugs does not lessen the risk of many disorders. What docs are now saying about HRT, Dr Grant was saying far more strongly many years ago when HRT was being lauded.

She shows how these powerful external steroids (and it doesn't matter whether they are synthetic or so-called "natural") are many hundreds of times more powerful than bodily hormones, interfering with all the systems in the body. She also says, "All this can lead to more infections, more food and chemical allergy, weight problems such as anorexia or obesity, osteoporosis and cancer". She demonstrates that HRT and The Pill are basically the same drugs with the same effects on girls and women prescribed these drugs for contraception, menopause, menstrual disorders.

This is a book which demands to be updated and reprinted for basic information (including lots of clinical proof) about these drugs, otherwise usually unavailable to lay readers in plain speaking language.

This book shows the long term effects of synthetic hormones leading to cancer and thrombosis etc. in women and side effects on men. Its well-researched and written by one of the Doctors who did the first trials on the pill in the 60's & 70's and shows the side effects. Also shows how the scientists distorted the results of the tests to give the impression that the Pill was good for you and ignored the fact that most of the women who started the trials of HRT and the pill gave up before the end of the trial because of severe side effects and only reported on the people left at the end of the trial saying they had no side effects. Explains about the dangers of high oestrogen from eating animals (given hormones to boost growth) and hormones given to pregnant women and underage teenagers. Its a must read.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a brilliant military genius and a true eccentric.
A fascinating and complex man, who found his destiny in war. Sherman revelled in war and owed much to it: he began it as an former officer of modest means and ended it hailed as the Union greatest general next to Grant. At the same time he loathed and despised war and was horrified by it. He was shocked by what the war did to his country, his people, his soldiers and to himself. At times he was appalled by his duties as an officer, but he was always highly resolved to perform these duties.

Everybody who has ever read his memoirs knows that Sherman was not only a great general but also a very talented writer. His memoirs are not a dry succession of events and his part in it, but they convey how he lived through the war and how and why he did what he did in it.
Now professor Brooks D. Simpson has edited a big volume of his Sherman's correspondence from the Civil War years. Again it is the quality of the Sherman's writing which catches the eye and pleases the mind. His letters, as are his memoirs, are a joy to read. This book offers an interesting perspective on Sherman and his part in the war. Reading the memoirs is like having Sherman telling his war experiences to you, long after the facts. This is interesting enough but reading his letters is even more so. It feels like being there with him in his tent, in some Union camp during the war, looking over his shoulder while events are shaping. A truly fascinating experience.
He pours his heart out to his brother John, to his wife Ellen, to his friend Grant and to many others.
So many aspects of his personality appear: his quicksilver intelligence, his warmth and humanity, his wicked and dry sense of humour, his fundamental decency and his military capability.
Read this book and look intro Sherman's mind: it is an interesting place.

The book itself is a big b*gger, but once you've started, you'll be grateful that is is so big: you'll hate to finish it. It looks great, which I like in books and it's very nicely turned out, with good quality binding , high grade paper, a pretty typesetting and a nice dust jacket design. Listings and indexes are clear and elaborate, which is useful in a book like this. So here's a big thumbs up to the publisher's (Chapel Hill North Carolina State University Press): very well done, a fine piece of work!!!

I can't recommend this too highly. A must for all those who are interested in history, in the American Civil War and/or in Sherman. Read and enjoy the letters uncle Billy wrote in those four years of war and enjoy the sight and the feel of this beautifully made book.

William T. Sherman was an irascible, unpredictably brilliant man and his letters bring out these myriad traits. He was a fascinating man and his own words illuminate his fiery personality. Sherman's own 1875 memoirs are a mixed bag, marred by an over-abundance of wartime correspondence and ancillary material. This collection of his letters actually makes for more engrossing, instructive reading. We hear his opinions on the major players of the Civil War: Grant, Halleck and Lincoln. We gain an understanding of his tortured relationship with his wife, Ellen, to whom many of the letters are addressed. His visceral hatred of the press and reporters is well represented.

The collection is expertly edited by Brooks Simpson, someone who thoroughly understands both Sherman and the civil war era. The notes are instructive and unobtrusive and the introduction lays the groundwork for appreciating Sherman and his correspondence. This is an outstanding book for anyone who wishes to get to know the erratic and intellectual General who was second only to Ulysses S. Grant in ability and results.

It's difficult to rate a collection of primary documents such as this one for several reasons. The quality of the documents themselves might be very good but the arrangement or editing of them might be very poor, in which case it becomes a question of whether you should rate the volume well for the documents themselves or poorly for the editing job. Fortunately this collection does not have that issue, as both the primary documents themselves and the editing of them are excellent.

This massive volume contains much of Sherman's correspondence during the war. Surprisingly, these letters are enjoyable to read, and the editors have done a great job of compiling and editing them. Reading these letters, orders, etc of General Sherman can give someone a very unique perspective of the Civil War as Sherman himself saw it, without the bias of authors who have written about it since and without the inevitable coloring of events that happens later when war heroes write about their experiences (and which certainly affected his memoirs, though I do believe they were very honest and straightforward). General Sherman is one of my heroes from the Civil War, and this collection of glimpses into his brilliant mind certainly fed my understanding and fascination of the man.

It is obvious that the authors of this bok not only have formal experience in education but practical experience in being parents/aunts/grandparents. What I found most useful was the fact that you can jump from one chapter to another depending on the mood of the child. The book also worked with the parents and at no time seemed to talk down to them. This is an effective technique and one that absolutely maximizes the impact this book can have on its readers.

I love and enjoy this book because it really showed me how important learning is for children from a very early age and how much of a role parents play in influencing and motivating their child's learning. It's a great parenting tool in that it shows parents how the teaching and learning process really is effortless when you incorporate it into everyday activities with your child. I found it an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow book with lots of great "learning labs" to do with my child at home. My daughter also found the activities lots of fun not to mention that it gave us some quality time together. I think this is a "must have" book for every parent.

Fianlly a practical, easy to read and useful guide for parents with young children. Smart from the Start helps parents make the most of everyday situations and makes learning a very natural, nonthreatening part of everyday life. Lots of useful information on how we learn and how parents can help their children learn. Loved the fun ideas which every parent can try. A very, very practical tool.

For those who want to dig beneath the surface and begin to reflect on how technology is shaping us at the very core of who we are, this book is a must!

If you have been stirred by essays of Wendell Berry to begin to question the wisdom of technological "progress", then George Grant will lead you further. He is able to communicate clearly without using dense jargon, but do not be fooled: his words are carefully chosen and demand to be read carefully.

Grant himself has done a careful reading of Plato, Friederich Nietszche, Martin Heidegger, and Simone Weil. His understanding of these great thinkers will stimulate amateur philosophers to investigate these issues further. At the same time his interpretation of these thinkers will challenge the professionals, especially those who have bought into the post-modernist perspective.

If you care about understanding how technology has propelled many of us into living such dry banal lives in the sterility of suburbia, this book is a must read.

I read this book when it was first published over ten years ago. I have re-read it at least seven times since. Each time I read it, I see new things. It is a slim volume with less than 200 pages.

If you are concerned about the disappearance of a clear understanding of justice, then Grant will reveal some underlying principles that lie at the heart of modern technology -- a dynamo that is corroding the western tradition of justice.

George Grant, is a subtle and penetrating thinker with regard to technology and the fate of modern society. In this slim volume, Grant in a series of essays details the need to find a way to think about technology, i.e., the way we view technology and its impact on society.

By discussing a diversity of thinkers such as Simone Weil, Nietsche, Plato and Heidegger as well as that on the issues of euthanasia and abortion, he has shown to us the historical fate of modern society which is infatuated with technology. The picture he painted is not pretty but I believe that one must have the courage to see historical reality as it is and not shy away from it. Only then, can we begin to look at ways to avoid the coming ruins of modern technological civilization.

All in all, a very important book for anyone who is concerned with the fate of modern society.

George Grant has been one of my "heroes" ever since I read him an alternative course the freshman English in college in the early 70's. Grant changed my life and forced me to look at the metaphyscial implications of the idea of progress, of morality as "values" (as though they were a commodity), and most of all, oponed my eyes to the world of the great philosophers from Plato to Hegel. This book, the last one Grant published, is as collection of essays in which he shines through as always. Grant was a Christian Platonist who was influenced by Leo Strauss and Simone Weil. His philosophical conversation over the years was with Nietzsche and Heidegger, whome he regarded as having thought the implications of the modern project to its depths. Yet Grant says "NO" to Nietzsche and Heidegger, while at the same time recognizing the benifits of modern technology in terms of its reduction of human suffering. Grant never tires in showing how notions of justice in a technological society are no longer rooted in an overarching "given," a metaphysic to which humans are fitted for. The hubris of technology (a neologism of "making" and "knowing") has devalued life, Grant maintains, so that "qaulity" of life becomes the standard of deciding who should live and who need not live. Hence Grant is opposed both to abortion and euthanasia not to mention genocide in general. Grant's book is not easy. The essays have appeared in earlier forms and have been recrafted. Grant's language is evocative, but also very careful. His can appear to be a pessimist, but he claimed he was not. This book gives us further inklings of what he called "intimations of deprival" that have beset all who live in the technological empire. If you want to read a North American philosopher who faced the times yet found reasons for rejecting the finality of this age's horizons, Grant is the one to read.

In this modest little book, originally written as a handbook for Negative Population Growth, Inc., Lindsey Grant, a retired career U.S. government official and diplomat, explores the consequences of having six billion people on the planet, and how much worse things are going to get as our numbers increase.

Probably the two strongest arguments for reducing our population are those derived from pollution and from declining per capita food production. Up until recent years science and technology have always come up with innovations that increase food production so that it has kept up with our population growth. What Grant argues is that ability is now running up against some barriers that are not likely to be circumvented. We already see this in grain production with world per capita production peaking in 1984, as Grant shows in a chart on page 9. We are producing more grain in an absolute sense but the amount per person is falling. If this continues, first the eating habits of the richer countries will change from meat, fish and poultry to grains and beans; and after that the strong will take from the weak with of course horrific consequences. Furthermore all the best land for raising food has long been in production; indeed a lot of it is under concrete and asphalt for the mammoth numbers of humanity to live on in cities and towns. Add to this the fact that the effect of fertilizers and irrigation on much of our most productive cropland has run up against the law of diminishing returns; indeed some of the very best land is now of marginal value or worthless because of salinization and fertilizer burnout of the soil.

For those of us in the highly industrialized countries, the reduction in per capita food production is invisible. Because of our economic power we have no food shortage as a consequence of there being too many people in the world. But what we do feel is the crowding and the growing pollution of our environment. One answer to pollution is to spend the money to clean up the wastes. Corporations are reluctant to do this because that would adversely affect their bottom line. Indeed some companies, if they were made responsible for the costs of their pollution, would go out of business. So instead of recycling they continue to pump their wastes into the atmosphere, into rivers, into the oceans, into landfills, etc. Some just smear the stuff on the ground and hope it will blow away or leach out. Grant writes, "I would argue that the primary mission of technology today should be to undo the pollution and waste generated by earlier technologies." (p. 87)

The consequences of these short-sighted practices are leading not only to an impoverished environment but to further reductions in our ability to grow and produce food. So what is the answer? Grant's answer is to reduce our numbers. Sounds great, but just how do we do that? To this he has no real answer because the enemies of reduced population growth are many and powerful. It is not just the Catholic church and fundamentalist religions everywhere who are opposed to reductions in human populations, but just about everybody who benefits from economic growth. The feeling in some quarters is that if there is a decline in birth rates, demand would be adversely affected and labor itself would become expensive causing a reversal of the economic growth to which we have become addicted. What Grant asks is, is that a bad thing? He works hard to show that reducing our numbers would bring immeasurable benefits to both ourselves and the environment.

But there are other problems. For example, the end of population growth inevitably results in an older population (see page 76), a population that must be supported by a younger working population. The industrial nations of Europe and the US have solved this problem partly by allowing immigration so that there will be workers to support the retired. Grant shows that this "solution" if continued will result in places like Italy, for example, being populated mostly by people not of Italian descent. We already see this in the southwestern United States where the increase in the Spanish-speaking population is on target to surpass that of English-only speakers in the not too distant future. Is this a bad thing? It depends on your point of view. But even immigration will not solve the problem. It is only a stop gap (and of course there is all that crowding and all those mouths to feed and all of their wastes to dispose of).

Grant's convincing and readable book is a wake up call to humanity, and that is a step in the right direction. What we need now is a plan to reduce our numbers and means to implement it.

Population and public policy expert Lindsey Grant reflects on how the recent and explosive growth of human populations has imperiled national and international attempts to achieve economic prosperity, social justice, and political stability by placing enormous strains upon the natural support systems that we all depend upon. Too Many People: The Case For Reversing Growth examines the major issues involved with how uncontrolled population growth lies at the critical problems of food supply inadequacies, potable water shortages, debilitated land, polluted air, global warming based climate changes, and energy shortages. Grant uses Europe as an example of how these population growth based problems can be solved and offers a broad outline of policies that would enable the United States to help both itself and other nations achieve sustainable populations for the sake of planetary ecosystems and the very survival of the human race. Too Many People is very highly recommended, essential reading for students of environmental issues, population growth, and international relations.

This is wonderful book. It succinctly gives one an overview of the most threatening aspects of our environmental problem. It is an important in that it ties together the world's environmental and population problems. It shows that we cannot effectively protect our planet without reducing population growth. I highly recommend this book to any one who wants to gain an understanding of what is happening to us and would like to know what can be done about it.

Memories of hours upon hours spent with my father, canoeing the ozark's rivers and lakes in the "Green Hornet", has stayed within my very soul. December 7th, my husband gave me a 16' "green" canoe with all the accessoriees for our 35th wedding anniversary. After 40 years-I can't wait to make my first trip! I immediately went to the book store and after reviewing every book on the shelf, I chose, "Canoeing-A Trialside Guide". The simplistic explanations and clear illustrtions grabbed my attention immediately. Christmas eve found me immersed in study, reviewing and learning from this easy to understand publication. Gordon Grant's writing technique has me anxioux to feel the tug of the waters - at my paddle and at my soul.

I have been a paddler since 1973 when my husband and I bought a used aluminum canoe. Back then there were almost no comprehensive, well-written texts on the subject. How I wish a book like Mr. Grant's had been available to me.

In 1982 I became a certified canoeing instructor and have regularly taught canoe classes since that time. We supplement our canoeing instruction with numerous handouts. One handout is a list of recommended books and videos to help the students advance their knowledge of the sport.

I never envisioned that we would replace Bill Mason's Path of the Paddle at the top of the list but we have done so with Canoeing, A Trailside Guide. We now recommend it as the very FIRST book the students should acquire.

The manner in which the information is presented is so similar to the way we teach, we tell our students they will actually hear our voices coming from the pages. On our recommendation, the principal canoe retailer in the area keeps this book in stock and we have encouraged the local book stores to also carry it. The illustrations are quite well done, much better than most canoeing instruction texts.

I am delighted to have a book I can so enthusiastically recommend and that can be of significant value to new and to experienced paddlers also. Reading and practicing the instructions in this book will do more to assure you a safe and satisfying canoeing experience than any other text I have encountered. Happy paddling.

Armed with no more knowledge than provided by this book, my twelve year old son and I purchased our first canoe, practiced its use and successfully ran 12 miles of Class III river last summer. Several experienced kayakers that we met at the river (and paddled with for safety) were impressed with the skills we had achieved - this was a section of river not generally navigated by canoeists. We only flipped once and confidently avoided any dangerous situations. This was a good kick start to a lifestyle that I think we both will enjoy for many years to come. The book is straightforward but very thorough. Mr. Grant's writing style makes what could have been a dry technical treatise an enjoyable read. The appendices at the end with gear manufacturers and additional sources of information are concise and very useful.

Earl J. Hess's new "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign" is as good a piece of Civil War scholarship as I have read in years. It is at the most fundamental level a narrative history of military operations in the Overland Campaign of May and June, 1864: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, but it is a narrative history that focuses particularly on how field fortifications evolved over the course of those six weeks of heavy combat and it details how the use of field fortifications influenced the course of that campaign. In his earlier volume, "Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War," Hess dispelled the old myths that such entrenchments were a direct consequence of the power of rifled-muskets or that their use suddenly sprang into being in the spring of 1864 (he documented three years of field fortifications, although not on such a scale as became standard by the end of the Overland Campaign) and that these entrenchments were somehow merely the fruit of the teaching of Dennis Hart Mahan at West Point. Or to quote the author: "The use of field fortifications evolved during the Civil War not due to some irrational fear, but due to a real and potent threat: the continued presence of an enemy army within striking distance. Their use was a rational and logical response to that threat."

Hess reserves most of the technical details of entrenchment and breastwork design for an appendix, leaving his main narrative fast-moving and compelling. "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee" is an important contribution to Civil War literature and should find a ready spot on the bookshelves of any serious student of the era. I look forward to his planned third volume, to examine field fortifications during the Petersburg campaign.

Inevitably, it must be asked how Hess views the Overland Campaign in balance. Was it a Union or a Confederate success? Although Hess does not absolve Grant of errors in too hastily ordering attacks or in failing to recognize the power of impromptu fieldworks, Hess concludes: "Grant's most significant achievement in the Overland campaign was not in capturing territory, or in positioning his army close to Richmond, or in reducing the fighting strength of the Army of Northern Virginia by 50 percent; rather it lay in robbing Lee of the opportunity to launch large-scale offensives against the Army of the Potomac. In laying claim to the strategic initiative, Grant won an important physical and emotional victory over Lee, and he did it with fewer losses than his predecessors had suffered in attempting the same goal ... Most important, he did not give up the strategic initiative and thereby brought the war to an end. The Overland campaign was as much a watershed in the strategic course of the Civil War as the Seven Days."

By the time of the Overland Campaign, the star of Earl Hess's second volume on Civil War fortifications, the idea of bravery that most soldiers had when hostilities began had just about fizzled out. In that more innocent time, soldiers and officers thought it cowardly to hide behiind entrenchments, or anything else for that matter. Battles were about sticking out your chest and, in plain view of the enemy, marching and shooting. (For a good account of this transition, see Linderman's Embattled Courage.)

Three years of the harsh reality of war changed all that, and by the time of the Overland Campaign, troops on both sides were digging in fast and furiously whenever they got the chance. Aside from the Vicksburg and Petersburg campaigns, nowhere was the entrenchment so obvious as in the Overland one. Most Civil War buffs know about the entrenchments at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. But many will probably be surprised (as was I) that entrenchments were also dug in The Wilderness and at the Bermuda Hundred.

Hess' account of the evolution of fortifications in this stage of the war is well-written and entirely accessible to the nonspecialist. He tends to protect Grant from the general's worst critics, arguing (much as does James McPherson) that the huge cost of federal lives in the Overland in fact did succeed in strategically defeating Lee.

The photographs are priceless. I've actually never seen most of them before. Moreover, the line drawings of fortifications and entrenchments are brilliant. All in all, highly recommended.

This is the second book in a series on fortifications in the eastern theater during the Civil War. The first book covers the war up to this point, while reading the first book is not required; it is worth taking the time to do so. 1864 produced a major revision in how digging in and fighting behind entrenchments is viewed by both armies. Open field battle gives way to fighting from behind entrenchments as both sides maintain close contact for months. The war is no longer open fields with a mile between the armies. Both sides dug into the earth often closer than skirmish lines were in 1862. The book details this change and the impact on the commanders and men.

The author continues working fortifications into the overall campaign giving the reader an excellent history of the Overland Campaign in the process. This presentation keeps the subject fresh while presenting the nuanced tactical differences in a logical sequential manner. This is very much a battle history but the emphasis is on how fortifications changed the campaign even as the campaign changed fortifications.

Earl Hess is one of our best authors. In this series and this book, he manages to give the reader a rich learning experience coupled with an enjoyable read. This is not a beginner's book but can be enjoyed by anyone with some knowledge of the Civil War.