Battle Cry of Freedom
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:19 pm
A one-volume history of the Civil War and its causes:
It's about 8 or 9 hundred pages long. Won the Pulitzer in 1989 or so. Fucking tremendous. Amazing, magnificent. It might be the best book I've read in years.
Starts with the economic & cultural transformations of the early 1800s, then the aftermath of the Mexican War and years leading up to secession. Fort Sumter doesn't happen until about page 270. Reads like a novel after about chapter 2 or so, definitely by the time it gets into Bloody Kansas and stuff like that; maintains narrative pace and excitement. Has just about nothing on Reconstruction, it ends at about Lincoln's death, and just has a short epilogue.
Be aware, it's not just a military history. It hits the major battles & campaigns, but balances that with political stuff like the intrigue in England over whether they would recognize the Confederacy as a country, the draft riots in NYC, pressure on Lincoln from Abolitionists and from Copperheads, how the one-party Confederate system actually weakened their political unity, etc etc. If you want straight battle, probably a different book is for you (maybe Shelby Foote). If you want a balanced treatment of the big picture, this is it.
NY Times review of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/s ... eedom.html
It's about 8 or 9 hundred pages long. Won the Pulitzer in 1989 or so. Fucking tremendous. Amazing, magnificent. It might be the best book I've read in years.
Starts with the economic & cultural transformations of the early 1800s, then the aftermath of the Mexican War and years leading up to secession. Fort Sumter doesn't happen until about page 270. Reads like a novel after about chapter 2 or so, definitely by the time it gets into Bloody Kansas and stuff like that; maintains narrative pace and excitement. Has just about nothing on Reconstruction, it ends at about Lincoln's death, and just has a short epilogue.
Be aware, it's not just a military history. It hits the major battles & campaigns, but balances that with political stuff like the intrigue in England over whether they would recognize the Confederacy as a country, the draft riots in NYC, pressure on Lincoln from Abolitionists and from Copperheads, how the one-party Confederate system actually weakened their political unity, etc etc. If you want straight battle, probably a different book is for you (maybe Shelby Foote). If you want a balanced treatment of the big picture, this is it.
NY Times review of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/s ... eedom.html