ANDREW FIALKA is associate professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. He has co-directed multiple digital history projects at UGA's Center for Virtual History (eHistory.org). He lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Beginning with Michael Fellman's Inside War, scholars of guerrilla warfare in the American Civil War have long married substance with style, using the fullest possible lexicon to describe scenes that are brutally indescribable, if not totally unimaginable. Andrew Fialka and Anderson Carman take this approach to a new level with Hope Never to See It. This improbable team of historian and sequential artist have achieved something truly excellent through their merger of Fialka's excellent research and wordsmithing with Carman's knack for visualizing and depicting a nightmarish world. Terribly, gruesomely resplendent, intellectually invigorating, and historically accurate, Hope Never to See It will change the way that readers think about the Civil War and may even push other scholars to think more creatively about how they present their material.--Joseph M. Beilein Jr. "author of A Man By Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill and the Search for American Manhood"

For the untold westerners who experienced the Civil War as a guerrilla conflict, 'civilian' and 'combatant' were distinctions without a difference. Men, women, and children all found themselves on the front line of a conflict marked by ambush, disguise, backshooting, rape, arson, torture, corpse mutilation, and massacre. Hope Never to See It combines a gripping narrative, cutting-edge historical interpretation, and illustrations that capture the raw brutality of this hyper-local, hyper-personal war to the last knife. Fialka and Carman haven't just pioneered a new way to teach Civil War history--they've caught lightning on the printed page.--Matthew Christopher Hulbert "author of Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War"

The graphic novel format works very well in detailing both narratives, allowing readers to imagine the horror--and uncertainty--of life during guerrilla war. The artwork is vivid and engaging throughout.--Aaron Astor "author of The Civil War along Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau"

Carman employs tight panel layouts, capturing both the tactical sweep and the zeal of men on the hunt. . . . Fialka offers in-depth sourcing and context for every word and image, which illuminates the history.-- "Publishers Weekly"

In a brilliant and bold move, and using an unconventional format--a graphic history--the authors are able to effectively offer readers (and of course, viewers) an alternative take on an extremely grim and dark chapter of the American Civil War. . . . Fialka, Carman, and the University of Georgia Press should be commended for thinking outside of the box with Civil War scholarship and exploring ways to bring history to a wider, more diverse, and likely younger audience with subjects and studies like this that often go untouched by traditional histories of the war and battle narratives.--Lee White "Emerging Civil War"

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Pub date: 2025-03-01

Length: 216 pages