Sterling Price; portrait of a Southerner [Hardcover]

Robert E Shalhope (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 311 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press; 1st edition, edition (1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826201032
• ISBN-13: 978-0826201034
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,896,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read About the Missouri Campaigns, But Not Without Its Faults, January 2, 2008

By 

Mr. Darby (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sterling Price; portrait of a Southerner (Hardcover)

Shalhope's balanced, thoughtful, and impressively researched tome is a must-read for Civil War scholars and buffs alike. Whereas historian Albert Castel focuses on Price's military campaigns in "General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West," Shalhope takes a closer look at Sterling as man, commander, and Missouri legend. Shalhope clearly did his research, but in my estimation might have better explained why Price was so admired -- indeed, beloved -- by his troops and large sections of Missouri. (This adulation went beyond mere rank and cause, and seemed to point to some unexplained X factor about Price himself.) In addition, Shalhope depicts Price as a rather mediocre general, though other historians are somewhat more generous in their appraisals. And while his book purports to be a "Portrait of a Southerner," the reader is left wanting a bit more portraiture of Price the man. For instance, Shalhope tells us that Jefferson Davis grew to despise Price, but we do not learn the many reasons why. We are told that many saw Price as terribly vain and arrogant, but we are told this rather than shown this. Had the author been able to take us behind the scenes and get into the heads of the major players, this treatment would have benefited. On balance however, Shalhope's book is a classic and fills the voids of Castel's earlier work.