War at Every Door

“[Fisher’s] presentation is balanced in a topic area where it is easy to become a partisan of one side to the controversy. His writing is clear, and his account is succinct and to the point. . . . A useful addition to the scholarship on the civilian experience in the South during the Civil War.” — American Historical Review

“An important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War in a border area of the upper South.” — Journal of American History

“Fisher is to be commended for bringing the war in east Tennessee to light. His text is well written and very well researched. . . . With broader knowledge of the situation in east Tennessee during and after the war (the fighting went on for two years after Appomattox), we see a clearer picture of how the war in east Tennessee affected the entire war effort on both sides.” — Civil War News

“An important book. . . . A readable, informative study. . . . Ample reference material and statistics complement the text in a superb effort to integrate war and society from which we can learn much more about our Civil War — not necessarily the Civil War of 'Gettysburg' or even 'Gone with the Wind,' but perhaps a 'real civil war' within our traditionally understood conflict.” — Civil War Courier

“Well researched and clearly written, this book will become the standard history of partisan warfare in east Tennessee.” — CHOICE

“This book represents a major fresh perspective on the many faces of the Civil War, especially the relationship between conventional and partisan conflict. The war for East Tennessee was a 'war within a war' captured lucidly by this young military historian. It is Civil War history as it ought now to be written — across the spectrum of political, economic, social and military events and the people who made them.” — B. Franklin Cooling, author of Fort Donelson’s Legacy: War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee, 1862–1863

“No book so well demonstrates why we must go beyond traditional drum-and-bugle military history to understand the American Civil War. Noel Fisher shows how both Union and Confederate partisan irregulars preyed on the civilian population — and on each other — in wartime East Tennessee. War at Every Door is destined to become a classic.” — Daniel W. Crofts, author of Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis

“Well researched and clearly written, Noel Fisher’s work makes a solid contribution to understanding the meaning and nature of Civil War in the southern highlands.” — Phillip S. Paludan, author of A People’s Contest: The Union and Civil War, 1861–1865