 "An all encompassing view of the Civil War" | 2009-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AQQLWCMRNDFGI |
If you want detailed discussion of battles, this is not the book for you. If you want detailed descriptions of key actors during the Civil War, this will not be the book for you. But if you want an all encompassing volume, linking the battles, economic issues, social life, culture, and politics, then this book will be a wonderful resource.
Where does the title of the book come from? A Civil War song, "The Battle Cry of Freedom," written in 1862. Illustrative lines:
"The Union forever, Hurrah boys Hurrah!
Down with the traitor and up with the star; While we rally round the flag boys,
rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of freedom."
McPherson addresses the purpose of this volume (Page ix): ". . .I have tried to integrate the political and military events of this era with important social and economic developments to form a seamless web synthesizing up-to-date scholarship with my own research and interpretations."
The book begins with background, the Mexican War, slavery, bleeding Kansas, and the election of 1860. We learn about the comparative economies in north and south as well as social and cultural and political issues. Then, as one chapter title says so well, "Amateurs go to war." Starting with untrained forces and many inept officers, the war began.
The difference between this and other histories can be noted in space devoted to battles. Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) is covered in two pages; Shiloh is addressed in 11 pages; 11 pages on Vicksburg; 13 pages are devoted to Gettysburg. But the context in which these battles (and others) were fought provides a deeper view of the Civil War. For instance, a table on page 608 suggests that it was a "poor man's fight," with laborers, farmers, making up the bulk of the Union forces. But McPherson notes that this ignores demographic realities and that, in fact, there was greater representativeness among the Union military than has often been noted.
All in all, an impressive work, integrating the many aspects of the Civil War in just one volume, with 862 pages of text.
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| "Battle Cry of Freedom" | 2009-11-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2JYDDNZHJEX8G |
| This book is a great read. Hard to put down, which is a great endorsement for a book almost 900 pages long. If you want a comprehensive but entertaining and very insightful review of the Civil War, you can't go wrong. |
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| "First Class Book on Civil War" | 2009-08-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A7PZ0PVBM4MBA |
When asked to recommend a good book on the Civil War, I always say U.S. Grant's "Memoirs".
However, this book is a very close second. Further, McPherson's book offers a better overall view of the crisis. It is well written, and offers a very excellent overview of not only the cause of the war, but also the strange changes that our nation went through in the several decades leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in early 1861.
The true story of the American Civil War is really almost like something out of a historical science fiction book- but it is all true... The Battle Cry of Freedom is really superb and will give you a strong basis for further reading as well.
Karl Granat |
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 "Scholarly overview of the Civil War" | 2009-07-31 |
| - Reviewed By User: AWV3PNGV4MRZG |
| This book, written by a Princeton professor, is a well researched, scholarly overview of the Civil War period. The general reader might find it a little heavy but it is certainly complete. |
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| "A UK view on Battlecry of Freedom" | 2009-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3R4J053RLO7XM |
My basic views regarding the Civil War were already in place having read a lot of books from both sides, from basic overview, to memoirs (general, to soldier, to politician, to citizen,) but this book eloquently helped focus them to a degree that was missing before. MacPhersons conclusion that the war rested on a number of turning points and was never sure in its outcome until as late as1864 is a key message.
It is therefore all the more interesting to hear the dissenting views regarding the pro northern sentiment of the book. These reflect the view that the winning side can rewrite history even when appearing reasonable by omitting what gets in the way of the prime message. This bias, or to be more accurate viewpoint , is certainly there in this book in the same way as it is with books written from a southern perspective. However no one volume book can be all things to all people and where the book truly excels is in the coverage preceding the war and how the minority of the South used the institutions at their control to hold block the majority view regarding slavery, westward expansion, or whatever did not serve their interests. To a non American complex events and ideas are made as simple as they can be to understand. I now know something about the know nothings!
In my opinion the problem with exhibiting any bias to the south in a general text is that it is impossible writing in modern times, to see slavery as anything other than disgusting and it is impossible as a reader reading in modern times to empathise with these supposedly noble southerners who supported such a peculiar, or more accurately, vile, institution. This leads to a logical conclusion that anyone who supported slavery deserved the worst of retribution. If this was merely the view of a landed minority, with every one else calling foul, then the social structure deserved to fall anyway for the majority good. I doubt it was.
As far as States rights go in supporting succession , States rights merely meant continued slavery. It all came or comes back in the book to what right one person/institution has to subjugate another for their own ends. The northern model :Economic wage slavery with choice and the chance to get ahead (the American dream?) and with the option to work for yourself; or the pure and simple subjugation of people variety of slavery in the south (where it was for the slaves own benefit or so went the crass ideology)
The lack of criticism of Lincoln is also mentioned but considering him from outside America, it is extremely hard to see Lincoln in a poor light. Nothing I've read portrays him as anything other than a truly exceptional man, both in politics and in humility. Shelby Foote the noted southern commentator considered Lincoln as well as Bedford Forest (who allegedly committed atrocities during the war as well as being the wizard of the saddle) as the only real geniuses of the war era.
What really comes out from the book is that Lincoln had so many enemies on all sides north and south and it is these people who invariably come across as incredibly small minded vain and petty : the real Gorillas in the midst. That he beat them, circumvented them or mollified them without being like them (ie stooping to their base level) is immensely satisfying, as this can never be taken for granted. In history meanness, small mindedness and vindictiveness are powerful `means to an end' weapons.
Lincoln emerges for me as someone many Americans seemingly did little to deserve at the time and who were incredibly lucky to have. He was not even a once in a century person, he was a much rarer occurrence than that. Others wanted to move faster to abolish slavery but I have read of no-one else who could have steered the boat of state as straight through such rapids as existed at the time towards this end. The consummate politician who took the majority with him reacting adroitly as history unfolded. That he was such an amazing figure must gall a lot of southern sympathisers to be sure.
I can even forgive him being a lawyer by profession as he used this for the wider public interest not for vested private interest.
Unlike too many lawyers !
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| "Great single volume narrative on the Civil War" | 2009-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANY5N1WQSA2RY |
| This is a fantastic single volume history of the Civil War, and a pretty quick read. Highly recommended. |
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