Customer Reviews

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's amusing to read the various reviews that accuse McPherson of bias: they are based on the reviewers' own biases, and certainly not on any real understanding of history. Any one-volume history of this enormously difficult period will necessarily leave things out, but McPherson gets the overall flavor right, and is factually correct. The war was begun by the South, which had been fighting to extend slavery. Any other understanding is simply wrong, and is in fact a wilful misreading of history.
McPherson's writing is excellent, his research thorough, and his conclusions incontrovertable. His treatment of the political conflict leading up to the Civil War is clear, which is no mean feat in itself. This is the one indispensible book on the Civil War.

I'm just a neophyte when it comes to Civil War history, but after moving to Maryland I thought it was about time I started getting better acquainted with it. Like many Americans, I was enthralled by the PBS Civil War series of some years back. Prior to that, I had exposure to the history of the period in a college class or two. Back then, the revisionist view of the War held that the hostilities stemmed predominantly from economic causes. McPherson's tome, which manages, adeptly, to be both readable and scholarly, reveals how complex this War and its causes were.

If you expect to join the battle within the first chapter or two, be forewarned. McPherson devotes considerable space to the lead up to the conflict. If one is patient, one will end up savoring McPherson's careful exposition of the events and circumstances of the first half of the nineteenth century that resulted in this horrific conflict. One learns that, yes, economic circumstances played a role, as did slavery from various angles (economic, sociological, social justice, etc.), the desire to preserve the Union, and the desire to preserve a way of life. One learns as the book progresses that the causes were not constant, nor were they pure; Lincoln seems a lot more real once one recognizes that his attitudes towards abolition, freedom, and black suffrage were nuanced, were not completely principled, and were affected by events.

I particularly enjoyed the brief treatment of the war at sea--not an aspect of the conflict that seems to get a lot of popular attention, aside from the armored ships. The battles, at land and on sea, were depicted with an economy of words; McPherson's narratives manage to be to the point and clear, and often moving. And it is fascinating to read how close the Republicans came to losing the election of 1864.

Like at least one other reviewer, I noted with alarm the pages dwindle before the war really seemed to be over. Lincoln's assassination is only briefly mentioned, and the reconstruction is left for another volume of the Oxford series. However that may be, this reader yearned for some discussion of the more immediate aftermath of the events described, and of the fate of more than one or two of the key players in the War.

But it should be a compliment to the author that after some 860-someodd pages the reader still wants more. Buy this book!

Following on from What Hath God Wrought, this next in the Oxford series focuses on the American Civil War and the two sides who both claimed to be fighting for freedom. The book does a fantastic job educating the reader on the causes of the conflict in brisk detail (which sounds like an oxymoron). I have to confess that as a Canadian, I was never taught in detail what brought the conflict about so my personal thanks to McPherson for doing so in a very engaging way. And though it is characterized as a sectional conflict between North and South over the future of slavery - much more played into it. The economics of the North and South were another factor of which slavery played a commercial and societal role in the latter.

Of course, most of us (regardless of nationality) are aware of the shocking statistics of the dead and wounded in this conflict. What the author does is provide the reasons why the counts were so high by convincing us of strategic flaws in executing the war on both sides coupled with modern weaponry. I was shocked at how inept the Union General McClellan was and how long it took to take action against his leadership. The battles are well described and the horror of 700,000 combat casualties ably communicated. The Civil War confronted the fact that human bondage was incompatible with the founding ideals of the republic and a huge price was paid as a result. The Introduction to the book states that there are over 50,000 titles on this subject, I recommend this one as it truly is a superb effort.

I am not one of the many "experts" on the Civil War. I am a novice on the subject. But I must say that I think it will be hard for me to find a single volume work on the Civil War that surpasses Battle Cry of Freedom. The author does a marvelous job of painting a picture of the nature of the war and the events that led up to it. This is not just a battle by battle account of the war. Rather it speaks of the battles and the political and social ramafications that those battles had. This book is award winning and does not need my written approval, but I just had to say something about. This book is a must read.

If you are looking for a comprehensive single volume book on the Civil War (and pre and post Civil War) history this is simply a great book for you. The first 300 or so pages deal with the conditions in the United States prior to the war- focusing mainly on the 1850's- and give a great synopsis of the mind set of the everyday people, politicians, business leaders, etc. North and South which lead to the war itself. The middle of the book deals with the war and it's battles, it's military leaders, as well as the politicians, and how the profound impact it had on the population in the North and South.

I still have a couple hundred pages left to read so I can't comment on the final chapters but the entire book has been so incredibly educational, enlightening, and enjoyable to read I can't expect I'll be let down. Truly a great book and you finish with a great well-rounded education on the America's most turbulent period.

Some seem to have been let down by the focus on slavery and their perception that McPherson implies the war was caused and fought to free the slaves. I didn't see it this way at all. Slavery was a major issue for the war so of course McPherson is going to have a significant amount of pages dedicated to it. But, it is not as simple as the Union thought slavery was wrong and fought for it's end and the South resisted. McPherson describes more how slavery issue was an example of the South believing the Federal government was governing like a King and associated it's own behavior with that of the 1776 revolutionists who fought against the King. So don't let that stop you from reading book. I felt it gave the slavery issue its just importance.

Also, if you are looking only for an in-depth description of the military battles this is not the book. It definitely gives the chronology, logistics, impact and details of the battles but it isn't solely focused on the fighting. It is an overall history of the politics, economy, foreign relations, military, and people of the Civil War.

This is undoubtably the best one-volume work available reagarding the US Civil War. From the Mexican-American War to the US Civil War's end in 1865, James McPherson compiles viewpoints from hundreds of authors into one coherent work. Throughout the book he makes effective use of footnotes and he includes a chapter of suggested further readings to help you sort through the tens of thousands of books on the subject as board as the US Civil War. The copious chapters dedicated to the antebellum period give the reader an easily understood view of WHY the war started and then delves into the major campaigns of the war.

Due to the scope of the topic, each chapter only briefly touches on the material concerned with the chapter. For example, the chapter entitled "The Salt-Water War" discusses the Union's operations to enforce the blockade against the Confederacy while presenting material about the Confederacy's use of commerce raiders and blockade runners. But it's all very high level. Some time is spent giving details about USS Monitor vs CSS Virgina and a few pages are devoted to the discussion of the Trent affair, but not many details are given about men like Raphael Semmes and his command of CSS Sumter and CSS Alabama. The most that's said of Semmes is a paragraph saying he destroyed eighteen vessels while commanding Sumter and "went on to bigger achievements" when commanding the Alabama. But there isn't a discussion on what impact these sorts of achievements had on the North.

But that's where the footnotes come into play. He liberaly cites sources for the material he's covering and it's easy to find more detailed sources for those topics the reader is interested in. This is also somewhat of a shortcoming because there doesn't seem to be much of the author's actual viewpoints in the book - it comes off as simply an assembly of other's authors ideas.

However, this is what makes this book so valuable. It gives the reader an opportunity to survey a large number of other works in an easy to read format while getting an excellent high level overview of the antebellum period and the war.

This fine work is simply the best single volume history on the American Civil War ever written. Complete, thorough and very readable, this scholarly yet practical history is the best cause and effect analysis to date of the event which spawned the America that exists as we know it today. It is a most detailed account of the complete redefinition of what America was to stand for. Very compelling, you will want to read this excellent book two or three times.

James McPherson has done an excellent job of condensing a very complicated (and controversial) era of U.S. history into a single volume. His book provides a detailed account of the battles and military strategy which defined the war. Just as importantly, however, it provides a social and political context for understanding why the war unfolded the way it did. His narrative of Abraham Lincoln especially gave me a deeper appreciation of how courageous and brilliant this great American president was.

Interestingly, the book doesn't follow a strict chronological order. This seems to have been done in order to maintain some continuity in the subject matter. It doesn't take away from the overall experience, as all events are eventually discussed in detail.

I enjoyed the book very much, and it is not difficult to see why Battle Cry of Freedom won a Pulitzer Prize.

James McPherson is Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. He has written more than eight other books on the Civil
War era including The Struggle for Equality, The Abolitionist Legacy, and Ordeal by Fire.

During the hundredth anniversary years of the Civil War, Bruce Catton wrote a series of books on the war which were highly praised for their content and his writing. Allan Nevins produced eight detailed books on the events leading to, following through, and subsequent to the conflict. With Shelby Foote's three volume history, this trio and hundreds of other standard and new sources provide the most comprehensive history of this pivotal period of American history. McPherson's research and narrative deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize.

The beginning is one year after what Bernard Devoto calls 1846;Year of Decision.
McPherson recalls the generals who served in the Mexican War and how they were led to the greater, more personal conflict in 1861 as friends and enemies. He reaches back to the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787, bringing us through the torturous trail that was the basis for America's founding and what some call the inevitable path to civil war.

The book's greatest strength lies in the exploration of the details which brought about this inevitability; the Declaration's omission by not dealing with slavery, the Constitution's allowance of its continuance, the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise and the Dred Scott Decision as well as the many other events which were precursors to the loss of more than 600,000 Americans.

When battles are described, McPherson uses the interim between them to tell us what was happening in other aspects of government, the reactions of the people, politics and international reaction. The battles are related not only as to their excitement and ferocity but, more important, their effect on the outcome of the war.
(How many times could the war have ended had individual outcomes been different, for the actions of its principals, ruled by their personalities and the quirks of weather, health and fate, been different?)

McPherson devotes considerable thought to slavery (Is this not what the war was about?) and promises that he will treat the subject further in his subsequent writings. He tells of the impact of Negro military forces in the fighting on the outcome to the point of the South's eventually giving in to using Blacks near the end in desperation despite the protests of many Southerners. The importance of the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation on Black enlistments is brought to mind and how hard they believed and fought, "If the white man can fight for my freedom, we can fight just as hard."

I highly recommend Battle Cry of Freedom to anyone interested in American history. An understanding of this epochal period is crucial in understanding what we were and what we are. Be forewarned that reading it - and rereading it - can lead to greater desire for more.

This book will be the standard one-volume history on the war for many years to come. If I were teaching a college class on the Civil War and its causes, this would be my textbook.