War on Record

Yael Sternhell teaches history and American studies at Tel Aviv University. She is the author of Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South. She lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“Sternhell has written a consequential—and beautiful—book. . . . Essential reading for every scholar of the Civil War era; no one will think of or use the OR the same way again.”—Kimberly Welch, Journal of the Civil War EraShortlisted for the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize2024 Tom Watson Brown Book Award winner sponsored by the Society of Civil War HistoriansShortlisted for the 2024 Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) Book History Book Prize and “highly recommended” by the selection committee“A meticulously researched and conceptually innovative work that reminds us that archives are never objectively constructed nor intended to be objective and that there is always a price of admission, even for historians. This important book will forever change how we enter and use this archive.”—Thavolia Glymph, author of The Women’s Fight“Professor Sternhell’s account of the creation of the official records of the American Civil War is a compelling story of an archival achievement almost as full of twists and turns as the war itself.”—James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era“War on Record is a timely and original investigation of the creation of historical archives, a stunning and stellar contribution to our understanding of the Civil War and postwar white reconciliation.”—Martha Hodes, author of My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering“In elucidating prose, Sternhell offers a compelling history of what we know about the Civil War and how we know it. War on Record is not only an indispensable book for Civil War historians but a brilliant primer for anyone searching to understand the past.”—Jim Downs, author of Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine