- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: National Geographic; Har/Map edition (Oct 1 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0870448765
- ISBN-13: 978-0870448768
- Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 23.4 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,279,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
With picture books on the Civil War now coming out as relentlessly as Sherman marched to the sea, it is becoming impossible to see the war for all the images. In the National Geographic's evocative juxtaposing of documentary photographs with Sam Abell's stunning recent ones of Civil War sites and memorials, we get a modernist montage of past and present. The hurried, though crisply written, narrative relates well-known events, but the images of the war, several of them previously unpublished, summon powerful feelings about the enduring and mystic chords of memory on war and its costs. A useful fold-out map of battlefield sites invites readers to visit the places to see them for themselves, but the book itself brings us close to the real war. Still, this is less a book for libraries than for ownership by individuals who want to experience the war at their leisure.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
"The American Civil War -- April to April, Sumter to Appomattox, 1861 to 1865 -- pervades the national conscience....It makes a great story...," writes Shelby Foote in his foreword to this volume. "I know of none since the Iliad that rivals it either in drama or in pathos...."
The Blue and The Gray tells that story, the epic of the first great modern conflict. In so doing, it raises issues still of urgent concern in many lands today: What unifies a diverse nation? What justifies the formation of a new one? What sustains democracy and law in the range of the guns? What peace can follow the loss of 600,000 lives?
Six chapters cover the conflict chronologically. Key characters in the saga are examined in biographical sketches throughout the volume, and a picture-and-text portfolio on a major social or technological theme accompanies each chapter. The book features color illustrations by National Geographic photographer Sam Abell and text by Thomas B. Allen, formerly a Society staff editor and a specialist in military studies. A judicious selection of historical photographs, specially commissioned new maps, and maps from the Civil War era enrich the pages.
While tracing the drama of the battlefield, The Blue and The Gray lets the reader meet individuals of the 1860s -- on both sides of the front lines. Their own words, eloquent or earthy, funny or pitiful or noble, express the ideals they lived by and died for as family members fought one another and the war toll became the highest in American history.
With accompanying guidebook and map supplement, this volume is designed to show and explain why, in Robert Penn Warren's words, "The Civil War is, for the American imagination, the great single event in our history," and why, in the opinion of Abraham Lincoln, it would affect "hope to the world for all future time."
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good overall view of the war but OUTSTANDING photos,
By A Customer
This review is from: Blue & the Gray (Hardcover)
As stated in my summary, this book provides a good overall view of the Civil War and would be a good read for any Civil War beginner. However, the best feature about the book is its photographs of modern and Civil War-era type. The modern ones are all worthy of being framed art and the Civil War ones are blown up as to let the reader feel he's actually there. Also the book has many photos that I've not come across in my voluminous readings. The book's major shortcomings are the lack of real inclusion of any other Civil War causes other than slavery and occasional inaccuracies (One inaccuracy: Black CSA soldiers weren't in combat. In fact, the ones recruited at the end of the war DID combat. Also there were many who fought with the South through the duration of the war). This book is a MUST for any Civil War photo buff.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good overall view of the war but OUTSTANDING photos,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Blue & the Gray (Hardcover)
As stated in my summary, this book provides a good overall view of the Civil War and would be a good read for any Civil War beginner. However, the best feature about the book is its photographs of modern and Civil War-era type. The modern ones are all worthy of being framed art and the Civil War ones are blown up as to let the reader feel he's actually there. Also the book has many photos that I've not come across in my voluminous readings. The book's major shortcomings are the lack of real inclusion of any other Civil War causes other than slavery and occasional inaccuracies (One inaccuracy: Black CSA soldiers weren't in combat. In fact, the ones recruited at the end of the war DID combat. Also there were many who fought with the South through the duration of the war). This book is a MUST for any Civil War photo buff.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for the beginner,
By Kenneth Branch "ken16279" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blue & the Gray (Hardcover)
A great book. Between the battle narratives and wonderful pictures are sandwiched many discussions of people and things like railroads. And let's get off the revisionist theories that the war was not primarily about slavery. I've gone to many symposiums and field trips with the likes of Edwin Bearss etc and still gained a better understanding of the war by reading this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best,
By Mike Siroky - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blue & the Gray (Hardcover)
This is a great book. It takes no journalistic license and the pictures are simply superb. A keeper.
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