Product Description

A narrative history of the American Civil War, which covers not only the battles and the troop movements but also the social background that brought on the war and led, in the end, to the South's defeat.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #530804 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 840 pages

Customer Reviews

EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE
I have yet to finish reading this marathon work, but I can honestly say that it is the greatest work of historical literature that I have yet read.

Firstly, the author shows an encyclopaedic grasp of the facts of history together with an intuitive and almost uncanny sense of their significance in relation to the unfolding story.

Secondly, his literary skills give even his vast factual knowledge a run for their money. This is no mere recitative of dry facts, but a perfectly paced and dramatically structured narrative, in which different literary genres such as biography and story-telling are seamlessly interwoven.

Thirdly, he has a rare gift for being judgmental without being partisan. He is not afraid to find good and bad on either side of the conflict; in fact he is not even afraid to find a cocktail of good and bad in individuals whom history slots
entirely into one moral category or the other.

Fourthly (and this is more subjective), this is so enjoyable as a read. The author's own exuberant fascination with the period, and the intensity of his admiration or scorn for the various personages involved on either side of the conflict, are communicated to the reader.

If you know nothing at all about the Civil War, you could find this sheer size of this work a bit daunting; more seriously, you could lose the bigger picture in the sheer wealth of fascinating detail. In that case, James McPherson's extraordinarily brilliant overview ("The Battle Cry of Freedom") could be a better place to start. However, if you want something really substantial to keep you engrossed on that coast-to-coast wagon-train journey, this is unreservedly recommended for beginner or Civil War enthusiast alike.

EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE
This is volume 2 of Shelby Foote's massive three-volume history of the American Civil War. I am reviewing the trilogy as a whole, and while the boxed set is hard to get in the UK it is particularly recommended.

I have yet to finish reading Foote's marathon work, but I can honestly say that so far it has been the greatest work of historical literature that I have ever read.

Firstly, the author shows an encyclopaedic grasp of the facts of history together with an intuitive and almost uncanny sense of their significance in relation to the unfolding story.

Secondly, his literary skills give even his vast factual knowledge a run for their money. This is no mere recitative of dry facts, but a perfectly paced and dramatically structured narrative, in which different literary genres such as biography and story-telling are seamlessly interwoven.

Thirdly, he has a rare gift for being judgmental without being partisan. He is not afraid to find good and bad on either side of the conflict; in fact he is not even afraid to find a cocktail of good and bad in individuals whom history slots
entirely into one moral category or the other.

Fourthly (and this is more subjective), this is so enjoyable as a read. The author’s own exuberant fascination with the period, and the intensity of his admiration or scorn for the various personages involved on either side of the conflict, are communicated to the reader.

If you know nothing at all about the Civil War, you could find this sheer size of this work a bit daunting; more seriously, you could lose the bigger picture in the sheer wealth of fascinating detail. In that case, James McPherson’s extraordinarily brilliant single-volume overview (“The Battle Cry of Freedom”) could be a better place to start. However, if you want something really substantial to keep you engrossed on that coast-to-coast wagon-train journey, this is unreservedly recommended for beginner or Civil War enthusiast alike.

Let down by the Maps
I fully agree with the other reviews about the quality of Shelby Foote's writing, his narrative drive and his grasp of detail. But I felt this edition is rather let down by the inadequacy of its maps. There are two large maps in the endpapers, but these lack detail and don't cover all the places mentioned in the text. There are also some smaller maps of battles and more localised campaigns, but again these don't show all the detailed locations referred to in the text. I eventually found I was reading the book with frequent references to an atlas to keep tabs on what was happening where. This is no fault of Mr Foote's, but is only too typical of recently-issued historical books.

Sorry to carp about what is otherwise a masterpiece