Southern Cross

A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South, by Eugene D.Genovese (Georgia, 176 pp., $24.95)

Eugene Genovese has a firmer understanding of American slavery than any other living historian, and he has a rare capacity for conveying immense portions of that understanding in a minimum of words. It will therefore not surprise his admirers to learn that this superb little book of essays packs the weight of a lengthy tome.