Not Even Past: The Stories We Keep Telling about the Civil War, by Cody Marrs Catherine Clinton enjoys a rich analysis of how the echoes of America’s bloodiest war still resound today By Catherine Clinton 30 November
Henry David Thoreau: A Life, by Laura Dassow Walls Catherine Clinton enters the beguiling lost world of a complex literary figure and seeker of truth By Catherine Clinton 3 August
Ties that Bound: Founding First Ladies and Slaves, by Marie Jenkins Schwartz Catherine Clinton admires an intimate portrayal of US presidents’ wives and those they subjugated By Catherine Clinton 8 June
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg Catherine Clinton on the legacy of a marginalised group in a supposedly class-free society By Catherine Clinton 6 October
Elaine Showalter on Julia Ward Howe, a poet against all the odds of her era Book of the week: For the poet told to lay down her pen on becoming a wife, writing was freedom, finds Catherine Clinton By Catherine Clinton 24 March