Rants & Observations

Civil War Stories of Missouri by Carolyn M. Bartels

Given the wonderful rich history available concerning the period in the title, this book should have been a highly enjoyable read. Too bad it wasn't. The book has no apparent organization or structure and seems to be strung together by whatever whim struck Ms Bartel's current fancy. It reminds me of one of the early Foxfire books but without the benefit of the adult teacher's editing. I could never tell if the poor grammar was that of the original author or that this author writes at this poor less than high school level. Part of the reason for this was the lack of proper punctuation when quoting but since she didn't cite properly so that someone could find where she was getting these stories anyway I guess it doesn't matter.

Her research and citation skills are so questionable in my mind as to make this volume of little use either for my geneological research nor my historical research. Given the price of this book at Barnes & Noble here in Columbia, I had hoped for better.

Simply citing her sources would have make this book worth the overall problems contained in the volume. I actually found two items that I want to follow up on but other than knowing that these two sources might exist, I have little to guide my search. Finding the original material is going to be difficult to say the least with the poor research provided.

So, unless you are reading simply for the enjoyment of reading, stay away from this book. I won't say that this might be true of the rest of her books as I have not read them yet, but this one is definately not worth it's price as a historical or genealogical reference.

posted by Paul @ 4:48 PM