false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170448968m/55229.jpg 55229 6 There are a few books that belong on the shelf of every Civil War buff: James M. McPherson's <I>Battle Cry of Freedom</I>, one of the better Abraham Lincoln biographies, something on Robert E. Lee, perhaps Shelby Foote's massive trilogy <I>The Civil War</I>. Add Jay Winik's wonderful <I>April 1865</I> to the list. This is one of those rare, shining books that takes a new look at an old subject and changes the way we think about it. Winik shows that there was nothing inevitable about the end of the Civil War, from the fall of Richmond to the surrender at Appomattox to the murder of Lincoln. It all happened so quickly, in what "proved to be perhaps the most moving and decisive month not simply of the Civil War, but indeed, quite likely, in the life of the United States." <br><br> Things might have been rather different, too. "What emerges from the panorama of April 1865 is that the whole of our national history could have been altered but for a few decisions, a quirk of fate, a sudden shift in luck." When Lee abandoned Richmond, for instance, his soldiers rendezvoused at a nearby town called Amelia Court House. There, the general expected to find boxcars full of food for his hungry troops. But "a mere administrative mix-up" left his army empty-handed and may have limited Lee's options in the days to come. Or what if Lee had decided not to surrender at all, but to turn his resourceful army into an outfit of guerrilla fighters who would harass federal officials? National reconciliation might have become impossible as the whole South turned into a region plagued with violence and terrorism. For the Union, "there would be no real rest, no real respite, no true amity, nor, for that matter, any real sense of victory--only an amorphous state of neither war nor peace, raging like a low-level fever." One of Lee's officers actually proposed this scenario to his commander in those final hours; America is fortunate Lee didn't choose this path. <br><br> Winik is an exceptionally good storyteller. <I>April 1865</I> is full of memorable images and you-are-there writing. Readers will come away with a new appreciation for that momentous month and a sharpened understanding of why and how the Civil War was fought. Let it be said plainly: <I>April 1865</I> is a magnificent work, surely the best book on the Civil War to be published in some time. <I>--John J. Miller</I> 53827 2001 April 1865: The Month That Saved America (P.S.) total:453|5:167|4:204|3:59|2:19|1:4| 453 1870 660 113 4 3 false false Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 08:40:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 13:49:24 -0700 2008
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As the Civil War drew to a close, the outcome of ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:02:54 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 08:42:44 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 08 09:59:53 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 16:41:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Oct 27 06:08:30 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 06:08:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 20 15:05:48 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 15:05:50 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat May 23 15:16:30 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 15:27:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 07:55:15 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 07:56:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 18:40:57 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 19:31:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 04:53:56 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 05 14:20:10 -0800 2008
Jay Winik's book is an account of the final month of the Civil War and the significance of those events in US history, particularly regarding ideas o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 13:09:43 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 20:23:59 -0700 2008
Jay Winik, the author, sums up the books style and presentation well in his Notes at the end of the book by calling ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Wed Dec 05 11:55:24 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 11:57:14 -0800 2007 Though the primary focus of this book is the last month of the Civil War, it opens in the 18th century with a view of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Winik (whose previous book, On the Brink, was an account of the Reagan administration and the end of the Cold Wa...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 15 11:08:07 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 11:37:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jul 17 20:13:08 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 20:15:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 19 14:28:24 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 14:32:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 23 17:15:52 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 17:19:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 15:17:19 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 17:06:34 -0700 2009
But I enjoyed this book tremendously for explaining in detail what happened at the end of the Civil War in man...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 13:26:01 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 21:22:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 22 20:44:39 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 20:50:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Dec 26 07:30:45 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 21 10:35:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=55229