The Next of Us Is About to Be Born is an anthology of fifty-five poets published in the Wick Poetry Series celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University. Designed to be an eclectic grouping, the anthology illustrates the exciting new directions poets have been taking from the early 1990s to the present, in keeping with the Wick Poetry Center’s mission of encouraging new voices.

“Karen Kovacik’s poems are strong, distinctive and thoroughly wonderful works. Her personal poems such as ‘Watching My Father Pray’ make use of autobiographical detail in a way that is never insular or hermetic. And her Richard Nixon persona poems are stunning, brave, and original. American poetry, and American writing in general, tends to be sadly ahistorical, and the way these poems take on one of history’s most loved and hated figures, giving him voice and making him human, is truly impressive. Nixon and I is an amazing debut.”—Jesse Lee Kercheval

This exhaustive study chronicles the life of career army officer John C. Tidball, from action in major Civil War battles to postwar service in the West. Beginning with the first Battle of Bull Run, Tidball, saw action in nearly all the major engagements in the Eastern Theater, including Chancellorsville, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Petersburg. Using previously unpublished wartime letters and memoirs, Eugene C. Tidball captivates the reader with the story of his most famous relative’s years in service to his country. Tidball’s account extends beyond the Civil War, to include recounting his presence at the Supreme Court’s delivery of the Dred Scott decision; his commanding of the military District of Alaska; his traversing the Southwest in 1853 as a member of the 35th Parallel Pacific Railway Survey; and his service as aide-de-camp to General-in-Chief William Tecumseh Sherman.

Historian Mike Pride traces Harriet Dame’s service as a field nurse with a storied New Hampshire infantry regiment during the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. Twice during that service, Dame was briefly captured. In early 1863, she spent months running a busy enterprise in Washington, DC, that connected families at home to soldiers in the field.

Over the years, many top historians have cited Major General Robert E. Rodes as the best division commander in Robert E. Lee’s vaunted army. Despite those accolades, Rodes faltered badly at Gettysburg, which stands as the only major blemish on his otherwise sterling record.

Sermons as historical documents reflect the thoughts, emotions, values, prejudices, and beliefs of their time. “The more popular a preacher, the more likely it is that she or he mirrors the hopes and fears of a significant number of people,” explains David B. Chesebrough in “No Sorrow like Our Sorrow.” His analysis of more than 300 sermons delivered in a seven-week period following Lincoln’s assassination (April 16-June 1, 1865) examines the influence of religious leaders on public opinion and policy during that turbulent period.

Anton F. Bilek was only twenty-two years old when he was captured in Bataan. No Uncle Sam is his story of survival through the Death March, his imprisonment under horrific conditions in the Philippines and Japan, and his servitude as a slave laborer in the Japanese coal mines. Bilek addresses the frustration, anger, fear, humor, hope, and courage that he and other Americans shared during their captivity and their silence about these experiences for many years after their release from the POW camps. After almost 40 years Bilek decided to write about his experiences, and this memoir is the result. Those who are interested in history and the incredible resilience of human beings must read this tale of survival.

Northerners at War brings together noted historian J. Matthew Gallman’s most significant essays on the economic, social, and domestic aspects of life in the North during the Civil War. Gallman tackles a range of Civil War home front topics—from urban violence and Gettysburg’s wartime history to entrepreneurial endeavors and the war’s economic impact. He also examines gender issues, with a fascinating review of the career of orator Anna E. Dickinson and an insightful examination of how northerners used gendered notions of masculinity in rhetoric to recruit African American soldiers.

More than just portraying the internal dynamics of a political party, Not All Politics Is Local affords the reader an insight into political life and the contributions to society made by local parties. For Angel, political parties do more than register voters and win elections: they engage the public in dialogue and challenge citizens to take responsibility for their government.

Largely forgotten by historians, Billy Wilson (1822–1874) was a giant in his time, a man well known throughout New York City, a man shaped by the city’s immigrant culture, its harsh voting practices, and its efforts to participate in the War for the Union. For decades, Wilson’s name made headlines—for many different reasons—in the city’s major newspapers.