![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Battle Review of Freedom
Jun. 17th, 2015 09:07 amHi,
Although I'm a bit late for the 150th anniversary stuff, I realized that I was interested in getting a better overview of the Civil War. A couple years ago I read a great book on Gettysburg and that was fun, but I was looking for something that took in the whole war. Several histories were recommended by the internets, most of them multi-volume affairs. I don't mind a big chunk of reading but I was hoping for just one book.
Far and away, the most recommended one-volume treatment of the war was Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. This is actually part of a larger set of books on American history, but the volume quite handily stands on its own.
And the book was pretty much what I wanted. Although it covered the various military campaigns of the war, it also widened its scope to look at social and political issues that surrounded it. Indeed, we spend the first quarter or so of the book focusing on the decades leading up to the war and the strains that eventually produced it.
The book also discussed political pressures in both the North and the South that influenced Lincoln and Davis. National morale for both sides rose and fell dramatically as the war see-sawed back and forth and negotiating those rapids to pursue a policy took a lot of effort.
Anyway, the book earns its plaudits and although it's a fairly large book (some 850 pages sans supplemental material at the end), the writing is clear and engaging. Well worth a look if you want to brush up on your American history.
later
Tom
Although I'm a bit late for the 150th anniversary stuff, I realized that I was interested in getting a better overview of the Civil War. A couple years ago I read a great book on Gettysburg and that was fun, but I was looking for something that took in the whole war. Several histories were recommended by the internets, most of them multi-volume affairs. I don't mind a big chunk of reading but I was hoping for just one book.
Far and away, the most recommended one-volume treatment of the war was Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. This is actually part of a larger set of books on American history, but the volume quite handily stands on its own.
And the book was pretty much what I wanted. Although it covered the various military campaigns of the war, it also widened its scope to look at social and political issues that surrounded it. Indeed, we spend the first quarter or so of the book focusing on the decades leading up to the war and the strains that eventually produced it.
The book also discussed political pressures in both the North and the South that influenced Lincoln and Davis. National morale for both sides rose and fell dramatically as the war see-sawed back and forth and negotiating those rapids to pursue a policy took a lot of effort.
Anyway, the book earns its plaudits and although it's a fairly large book (some 850 pages sans supplemental material at the end), the writing is clear and engaging. Well worth a look if you want to brush up on your American history.
later
Tom
