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Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

Questions About Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

by James M. McPherson

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Answered Questions (3)

Reading the book description, this sounds like another perpetration of the Lost Cause Mythology. For those of you who have read it, would you please let me know? Because, while I'm curious, another book that promotes that the South was doing anything other than rebelling for the right to own black people, is something I am NOT INTERESTED in.
B. P. Rinehart Lol this book is the anti-Lost Cause history. The first approximately 200 pages are spent debunking the Lost Cause myth. Here's the last paragraph of …moreLol this book is the anti-Lost Cause history. The first approximately 200 pages are spent debunking the Lost Cause myth. Here's the last paragraph of the book:

"The terms of...peace and the dimensions of black freedom would occupy the country for a decade or more. Meanwhile the process of chronicling the war and reckoning [with] its consequences began immediately [after it ended] and has never ceased. More than 620,000 soldiers lost their lives in four years of conflict-360,000 Yankees and at least 260,000 rebels. The number of southern civilians who died as a direct or indirect result of the war cannot be known; what can be said is that the Civil War's cost in American lives was as great as in all of the nation's other wars combined through Vietnam. Was the liberation of four million slaves and the preservation of the Union worth the cost? That question too will probably never cease to be debated--but in 1865 few Black people and not many northerners doubted the answer."(less)
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Is this book historical fiction or non-fiction?
James Zaworski This is a non-fiction book and is an excellent history of the American Civil War.
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The Civil War has been my hobby for years. My Great Grandfather fought with the 8th. Ky. Inf. Mounted Confederate but I cannot get into this book. I have started it many times, Has anyone else had this problem?
John Baraldi If you're just interested in the Civil War, it probably isn't the book for you. It's a bit dry in the beginning and doesn't get to the start of the wa…moreIf you're just interested in the Civil War, it probably isn't the book for you. It's a bit dry in the beginning and doesn't get to the start of the war until about page 270.

It is masterful work though, of going up to the years leading into the war and detailing all of the causes, etc.

A one volume masterpiece.(less)
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