![]() ![]() ![]() One definitely comes to understand the assertion by some that the Civil War is yet to be concluded. I never realized (or perhaps, wanted to realize), for example, that many of our military bases were named after notorious, treasonous generals and politicians who were defeated, and rightly so. Renewed debate concerning Confederate statues and monuments, and the state of race relations in this country make so much more sense after reading this book. In the years since it was first published, we’ve had debates in our nation concerning things that most of us thought were settled. In a way, there was an advantage to having waited to read this book. But these were times in which men (yes, it seems, mostly men) proclaimed the superiority of slave-owning societies and even declared abolitionists to be “immoral” or “un-biblical.” The inclusion of ample quotations to this effect was a stunning revelation to me, and completely wiped away any notion that I may have had concerning the Civil War’s cause being “states’ rights” or any such thing. ![]() ![]() I had grown up with the assumption that perhaps the South defended this practice with some kind of embarrassment, as a necessary evil, or some such thing. I was shocked to read the quoted excerpts from some politicians (and not all of them in the Confederacy) in defense of slavery. The book makes me want to go on to read a great deal more about the period of Reconstruction, about which I also am shamefully ill-informed. I noted that some reviewers were disappointed in the coverage of specific battles of the war itself, but I found it more than adequate - and there are of course many, many other works that focus on the nuts and bolts of war. I found the portion of the book that dealt with the lead-up to the Civil War to be of greatest personal interest. “Popular Sovereignty,” “Nativists,” “Free-soil,” “Know-nothings,” “Lecompton Constitution,” “Copperheads,” “Butternuts -“ these were all terms and political groupings that I was entirely unacquainted with prior to reading this book. This book introduced me, not only to the broad outlines of the war, but the factors that led up to it and the the various protagonists who charted the course of the nation during the period. Somehow I managed to get through an above-average secondary school education and obtain an Ivy League degree in the Humanities without learning much at all about the Civil War - which is almost a crime. But finally getting to this book, by whatever means, was an incredible treat. So, this was one of those books (of which there are several) that I undertook to listen to on Audible, if only to assuage my own guilt and embarrassment at having so many books on my bookshelf that I had not read. I’ve owned the hardback version of this book for at least twenty years, but it went unread, if only due to the hefty size of the volume (and perhaps due to limited interest, on my part, in the American Civil War). And enough quotes and excerpts from letters and diary entries to personalize those affected by the war, North and South.Ī magnificent history and an enjoyable read Enough battle facts to satisfy you if you aren't studying military tactics. There is enough storytelling to bring characters like Grant, Jackson, Johnston, McClellan, and Sherman alive. If you're interested in the history of the time but have American primary and secondary school knowledge, this is a great book. I did not understand the significance of the Whig party and its relationship to the Republican Party. The Mexican-American war the role of Manifest Destiny in the expansion or curtailment of slavery is made clear. Now I understand the tension created by the Missouri Compromise that led to the Pottawatomie Massacre that led to the Lawrence Massacre. Before this, the war, in my limited knowledge, started with Dredd Scott and Harper's Ferry. The appeal of this narrative is that it paints a cohesive picture of the United States in the preceding decades before the war that helps to explain its causes. ![]()
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