MixedThe Wall Street JournalMs. Showalter presents no great revelations in The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe, no major discoveries to add to those of previous biographers. Nor does she fully explore Howe’s intellectual life—her religious views, for instance, are not fully developed. Although Howe herself complained that the world 'has neglected some good writing of mine in verse and prose,' Ms. Showalter exercises a good deal of restraint considering her own renown as a literary critic...The reader is left unsure what to make of Julia Ward Howe’s literary achievements.
