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Title: A Weak Attempt at Re-Revisionism
Review: This book is an ultimately unsatisfying attempt to rebut the rather substantial literature on disaffection, disloyalty, desertion, demoralization, and Unionism in the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Gallagher does this by selecting weak points of various historian's arguments (without engaging their strong points), focusing on particularly weak books, and making various special pleadings. Although he occasionally makes very valid points, in the end, his arguments are very weak. Providing quotations from people who supported the Confederacy in no way diminishes the fact that many other people were disenchanted with it. In the end, Gallagher's attempt to stem the historiographical tide will be seen to have been unsuccessful.
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