THE LONG ROAD TO ANTIETAM by Richard Slotkin

Book Review by Jon Nelson

This book contains so many factual errors and unfounded dogmatic conclusions that it is hard to imagine that any publisher would take it seriously.  The most obviously ridiculous assertion is in the introduction when the author claims that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation only served to free the slaves in the south.  This is the exact opposite of the facts: The south had its own government and wasn’t the least affected by what Lincoln proclaimed.  The Proclamation in fact applied to no one, since the blacks in the Northern states were already free, at least ostensibly.  Any reasonably competent elementary school student knows this; it is inconceivable that the author of this book, to say nothing of its publishers and subsequent reviewers, does not.  This error alone disqualifies the book from any serious consideration.