Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)
by James M. McPhersonpublished
December 11th 2003
(first published 1988)
by Oxford University Press, USA
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binding
Paperback, 952 pages
literary awards
Pulitzer Prize for History (1989); National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee (1988)
isbn
019516895X
(isbn13: 9780195168952)
description
Published in 1988 to universal acclaim, this single-volume treatment of the Civil War quickly became recognized as the new standard in its field. Jame...more
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Read in July, 2007
It is reported that there are 15,000 books on the Civil War in the Library of Congress, so the natural question is where do you start? Furthermore, Most of the "seminal" Civil War works are volumes and thousands of pages. Well in 850 pages, McPherson provides succint, yet thorough historical writing of the highest caliber. It unmuddies the waters as to the reasons for the country's schism and the start of the war and provides the necessary level of detail as to the prosecution of th...more
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Read in April, 2005
recommends it for:
Everyone
Maybe the best history of the U.S. Civil War in print. The book is a joy to read, assumes nothing from no one, goes through a ton of intricate detail, and takes the reader on a great ride through a hugely influential episode in American history.
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Read in August, 2005
Unbelievable! So many little tidbits about the lives and cultures of the soldiers on both sides. You can literally turn to any page and learn something new. winner of the Pulitzer prize, what more can you say!
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Read in September, 2008
A nice addition to my Civil War collection of readings. This book provides a lot of background to the war including the decades before the war and a lot of the politics before and during the war.
McPherson provides a balanced perspective . I like his discussion in the epilogue where he talks about how historians have frequently latched on to one or two "reasons" for why the north won (like the preponderance of resources, or specific key victories) while the real story is more co...more
McPherson provides a balanced perspective . I like his discussion in the epilogue where he talks about how historians have frequently latched on to one or two "reasons" for why the north won (like the preponderance of resources, or specific key victories) while the real story is more co...more
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If a person only reads on book about the causes and effects of the American Civil War this is the one.
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Read in January, 2003
Best one-volume history of the Civil War. Ever.
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Adria by:
David Tingey
This was an excellent overview of the civil war, especially since I got the illustrated version. It was not overly in-depth on battles although all of the important ones were debriefed. My interest was mostly the politics which were very comprehensively dealt with. MacPherson didn't spend a lot of time on sensational or gruesome elements, although since crazy stuff did happen, he does include significant episodes. I was basically glued to this book until page 600, and then I was really ready...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Carole by:
Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal columnistrecommends it for: Anyone interested in the politics of war
I struggled through this one. But I learned a lot. A whole lot.
The Civil War has never been an addiction for me as it is for so many others. But I felt that as an American citizen I should know more about what may be the seminal event in this country's history.
Make no mistake--this is essentially a college course. It's foot-noted and detailed and it won the Putlitzer for non-fiction. It is definitely worth your time, but it is not easy reading.
I think what I found most interesting wa...more
The Civil War has never been an addiction for me as it is for so many others. But I felt that as an American citizen I should know more about what may be the seminal event in this country's history.
Make no mistake--this is essentially a college course. It's foot-noted and detailed and it won the Putlitzer for non-fiction. It is definitely worth your time, but it is not easy reading.
I think what I found most interesting wa...more
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Read in June, 2006
i failed on this one. i was 350 or 400 pages in and i just got bored. so much so that i wasn't reading because i would only let myself read this book. i decided it's better to give up on a book than to stop reading entirely. it is actually a pretty good book, if you need to learn the subject in great detail. however, my interest in a general overview of the civil war was not sufficient to get me through a detailed account of nearly every troop movement.
however, i did like the first part of t...more
however, i did like the first part of t...more
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Subtitled "The Civil War Era," this book is less about the era than the war itself. It is a narrative telling of the military and political history of the times leading up to and including the Civil War. It is comprehensive, well written, laudatory to sources, and--perhaps most importantly for a book this size--consistently interesting. McPherson gives the South fair treatment, but he writes from a decidedly Northern perspective, which is even more evident in the 2003 Afterword in whic...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone who enjoys history
A wonderful one-stop military and social history of the American Civil War. Extremely well written and constantly bobbing between national politics and strategy and the small human details behind triumphs and tragedies. Being British, my knowledge of the war was fairly sketchy at best, yet this book managed to keep my attention despite the fact that many of the geographical and historical references meant nothing to me.
It was shocking to realise that parts of America effectively abolished s...more
It was shocking to realise that parts of America effectively abolished s...more
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Read in July, 2008
Battle Cry of Freedom is simply an amazing condensation of the Civil War era into a single volume with a cohesive narrative, with citations to expanded texts for every portion. Rather than plodding through chronology, McPherson follows concepts, conflicts, and individual campaigns through each chapter, and avoids bogging down in the minutiae of each battle.
A side effect of the volume, though never the driving force, is to ut...more
A side effect of the volume, though never the driving force, is to ut...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Erin by:
Dad
If you are going to read one book about the American Civil War this book is undoubtedly the best choice. McPherson's take is comprehensive and as far as I can tell, unbiased. He looks at the war not only from the perspective of armies clashing in battlefields but also the home front and abroad. McPherson looks at the greater societal ramifications of the war.
I found this book much easier to read in the audio version than the print version. The reader is very good and since my mind, which...more
I found this book much easier to read in the audio version than the print version. The reader is very good and since my mind, which...more
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Read in April, 2001
recommends it for:
anyone who want's me off their back.
I have read about the Civil War my whole life and this book is the only one to give me new and fresh insights.
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Read in June, 2008
If you had to choose to read one book on the Civil War, this is the one. Clearly narrated, this book covers more than just the battles -- much of the work focuses on the social, technological and diplomatic implications of this great conflict. I was surprised to learn just how close Abraham Lincoln came to not being re-elected President in 1864; but for the fall of Atlanta, the history of the country would have been vastly different. This work is an excellent overview of the United States dur...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2004
recommends it for:
Dellusional Revisonists
Perhaps it is telling in a post-modern era, but when a work wins a Pulitzer, especially a piece on one of the most dire times in American history, one should not expect such a jaundiced ebullition, seeming to simplify the causation of the conflict to black and white hats. Just as we are failing to understand the cultures we are helping with persecuting our wars, McPherson shows more interest to being booked on talk shows than on understanding the full range of disparate inputs and causes that le...more
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Read in October, 2008
McPherson's book remains the classic one-volume history of the Civil War. Rich in its battlefield descriptions it also compellingly covers the approach of war in the 1850s and the homefront during the war. Really wonderful.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
people who wonder what happened at Gettysburg
I revisited this book after finishing Drew Gilpin Faust's fantastic This Republic of Suffering. After all this time it's still THE book to read if you can only read one book about the Civil War. It contains too much military history for my taste, and not enough social history (and virtually nothing on the home front experience), but it's the best overview you're going to find. I use "overview" with reservations because at 600+ pages it's not exactly a quick read, but somehow it ...more
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Read in January, 1993
This bad boy is a monstrous thousand-pager, and a great political / military / social history of those critical years. I read it (and had it read to me by my mom on the living room couch) over a 4-month period in sixth grade, and I'll never forget the descriptions of Burning Kansas, canings in the capitol building, and the thousand-yard walk up through different layers of artillery that troopies had to endure just to get to the line of battle. Incredible to think of Americans just slaughtering...more
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