Reactions upon reading this book in 1989.

Not as interesting a book as I hoped. I hoped to read colorful, detailed accounts of remarkable exploits of blockade runners. There was some of that but not much. However, I did learn much about the Confederacy and the blockade. The Confederacy seemed doomed by its very raison dé etre: assuring individual property rights and states rights. The Confederacy should have impressed private ships into its service to run the blockade, immediately regulated the importation of certain goods instead of waiting over 2 years -- a delay which caused inflation and hardship for the poor and middle class of some port cities, and demanded early on a certain percentage of cargo space on blockade runners the Confederacy seemed naive to (understandably perhaps, in this regard) believed that England would interfere to ensure their cotton supply. The Confederate states seemed to have little strategic sense in believing the North couldn't blockade them. I was also somewhat intrigued by the financial and international (particularly involving Mexico and Spain) aspects of blockade running. Though I didn't always full comprehend the sometimes terse accounts, I liked some of the anecdotes of blockade running and was amazed to learn how relatively easy it was to run the blockade. I also liked the descriptions of the physical topography of the ports the runners went to and the difficulties posed. ( )