The Secret Eye

“An involving and intriguing addition to the personal histories of the period . . . told by a privileged woman who gathered strength and independence from disaster.” — Kirkus Reviews

“In this fascinating abridged journal, a Southern belle shows that the events portrayed in Gone with the Wind were much less romantic in real life.” — Publishers Weekly

“Few diaries by Southern women are as rich as Thomas’s account. . . . This is a real Scarlett O'Hara, with grit.” — Library Journal

“The readability, the sustained interest of this diary, with its keen observations and full detail and its continuing concern with social justice, offers an unusually rich insight into a crucial period of social change.” — ###Maryland Historical Magazine

“A rare, continuous picture of one privileged slaveholding woman’s response to the crumbling of her world in the trauma of war and its aftermath. This dramatic and moving personal story offers an important perspective on the death of the Old South and the birth of the New.” — Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, author of Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South