NEWS
For Immediate Release
from the Austin
Civil War Round Table,
Inc.
Contact: David White
Phone Number: (512) 497-4832
Email: hdwhite@austin.rr.com
National Park Historian Wins 18th Annual Austin Civil
War Round Table’s Laney Book Prize
(Austin, Texas) – Dennis Frye, the Chief Historian of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
has won the eighteenth annual Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize given by the Austin
Civil War Round Table, Inc. for his important new work, September Suspense: Lincoln’s Union
in Peril published by Antietam Rest Publishing. Frye is a prominent Civil War historian and
writer who has appeared numerous times on PBS, The History Channel, The Discovery
Channel and A&E. He was also an associate producer of the epic Civil War film Gods and
Generals.
September Surprise captures the crucial military and political moments of one of the most
crucial months of the Civil War through the eyes of contemporary newspapers. Frye describes
how fragile the idea and reality of the United States was during that crucial month, as
Washington, Wall Street and the entire nation hung anxiously in the balance, watching to see
what would happen during Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the north. The outcome of the
invasion would at the least affect the upcoming November elections and possibly even the
viability of the republican form of government in the world.
Professor George Khoury of Florida Institute of Technology wrote in a review of the book for
Civil War News that “Each chapter of Frye’s excellent book sparkles with information and
citations that lead readers to new understandings about topics we thought had been
exhausted.” Civil War blogger Rea Andrew Redd wrote, “In September Suspense: Lincoln's
Union in Peril Frye achieves his goal of having the reader 'feel history', enter 'a time machine'
and 'live the moment' with those who passed, day by day, through a suspenseful month when
the Union was in peril.”
The Laney Prize money of $2,000 will be awarded to Frye at the June 20, 2013 meeting of the
Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc.
The Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Prize is awarded yearly by the Austin Civil War Round Table,
Inc. for distinguished scholarship and writing on the military or political history of the Civil War.
Established by the membership of the Round Table, the Prize honors the Laneys each year for
their splendid efforts on behalf of the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc. and especially, for their
many efforts to protect the endangered battlefields of the Civil War.
Previous winners of the Laney Prize were: Daniel Sutherland for Seasons of War (Free Press),
William C. Davis for The Cause Lost (University Press of Kansas), Gary Gallagher for The
Confederate War (Harvard University Press), Jeffry D. Wert for A Brotherhood of Valor (Simon
& Schuster), Joseph Harsh for Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the
Maryland Campaign of 1862 (Kent State University Press), Richard McMurry for Atlanta: 1864
(University of Nebraska Press), Dr. Richard B. McCaslin for Lee in the Shadow of Washington
(Louisiana State University Press), Gordon C. Rhea for Cold Harbor (Louisiana State University
Press), Frank A. O’Reilly for The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock,
(Louisiana State University Press), Edward T. Cotham, Jr. for Sabine Pass: The Confederacy’s
Thermopylae (University of Texas Press), Jeffry D. Wert for The Sword of Lincoln, The Army of
the Potomac, (Simon & Schuster), A. Wilson Greene for Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City
in the Crucible of War (University of Virginia Press), Nelson D. Lankford for Cry Havoc!: The
Crooked Road to Civil War, 1861 (Viking), Craig L. Symonds for Lincoln and His Admirals
(Oxford University Press), Donald S. Frazier for Fire in the Cane Field (State House Press),
Edwin Bearss and J. Parker Hills for Receding Tide (National Geographic) and Gary Gallagher
for The Union War (Harvard University Press).
For more information, contact the President of the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc., David
White, at the number listed in the heading.
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