A most excellent read and review of life in Richmond during the Civil war. ( )

Ernest Furgurson has written an excellent history of Richmond, Va., capital of the Confederacy, and how it weathered the Civil War. The book is informative, somewhere between interesting and riveting. Its cast of characters -- the majority of the Confederate political leadership -- bears way too much resemblance to the present situation in our country, where so many in government and commerce spoke "patriotic" rhetoric to lead us into a misguided war (fought valiantly and at great cost by the troops on the field and with great suffering to their families), almost purely for their own highly misguided self-interest. Another example of the powers that be seeming not to have any idea of or interest in the consequences of their actions, use of power, or greed. ( )