Storm Over the Land: A Profile of the Civil War

by Carl Sandburg

Legendary American poet Carl Sandburg adapted his acclaimed four-volume biography into a one-volume account of the Civil War. Our nation had its unity hammered out in storm. Sandburg's story of those years takes in campaigns and generals, common soldiers in their daily struggles, politics behind battle lines and the unbreakable faith in high and low places. It is a tragic and inspiring narrative, told by one of the great figures of American literature.

Genres: History, Civil War, American History, Nonfiction, Biography, American Civil War

448 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Free verse poems of known American writer Carl August Sandburg celebrated American people, geography, and industry; alongside his six-volume biography Abraham Lincoln (1926-1939), his collections of poetry include Smoke and Steel (1920).

This best editor won Pulitzer Prizes. Henry Louis Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_San...

Reviews

[Bruno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five false starts in more than ten years and I finally finished this quite exceptional book. It was Sandburg's often archaic and arcane writing style that threw me off the first four times but I was compelled to get past that this time. It was, after all, written about the time that Gone With the Wind and the Wizard of Oz were released so the style is probably not so strange as one might think when viewed in the light of its first release date.

The author actually displayed a keen sense of the proceedings of war and writes about some of the campaigns as if he were an eyewitness - it occurs that perhaps his father was an eyewitness or a combatant and told him firsthand about some of them. Born in 1878 or so, the war was not some ancient event but recent history, like Korea and WW II for us boomers. From my perspective, however, the key passage is found on pages 222 and 223 of chapter 15, Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg. If you still have a copy mouldering on your bookshelves, go back and read that last portion. It is true poetry - beautiful, lyrical, almost magical writing. His allusion to the ticking clock is simply genius. That section alone was worth keeping this tome until I got the strength to finish it. Rest in peace, Mr. Sandburg. This was a gifted man, an accomplished writer, an amazing poet,a successful singer and song writer. It is no wonder I thought that some of the passages were lyrical - they really were.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since we are quickly arriving at the 150th anniversary of the close of the Civil War, I decided to read a book about the War that I haven't read before. I thought I would get one by Shelby Foote, but then more or less stumbled on Carl Sandburg's one-volume "profile of the Civil War" (that's what he calls it). I'M GLAD I FOUND IT. It has all the essential facts and lots of the personalities, without the drag of the day-by-day, order-by-order pursuit of the war. Plus, and this is the best part - it is written by a poet, with glorious style.
So, if you want to read just ONE book about the Civil War this year, GET THIS ONE.
EXTRA CREDIT: When you get near the end, watch again the wonderful film, "Lincoln," starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Old Abe. It's really a masterpiece, showing the intricate machinations that allowed for the passage of the 13th Amendment, ending and abolishing for all-time slavery in the United States.
I think, however, this will be my last book on the Civil War this year. I just get TOO MAD at the South. I know it has been 150 years since the War ended, but there an awful lot of things happening today that sound a lot like those days leading up to the Civil War.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1942 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc.
I read a 2009 re-print published by Konecky and Konecky.

In 1940, the famed poet, journalist and author Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) won a Pulitzer Prize for his four volume biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (published in 1939.)

In 1942, his publishers came to him and asked him to re-work the biography into a history of the Civil War in response to America's recent entry into World War II.

The result is a pretty solid history of the Civil War from basically the Union point of view.

Carl Sandburg is best known as a poet and that shines though with some of his prose. From time to time, he comes up with a different and interesting way of telling the story of the war.

The most obvious weakness to this history is the story of African-Americans in the war - the free, the enslaved, the recently freed, the soldiers and others. He mentions them, but does not look at them very hard. To be fair to Sandburg, this book was published 81 years ago and he covered the topic about as well as any mainstream history would have.

I rate this history 4 stars out of 5.

https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2023...

[Mike Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aptly subtitled "A Profile of the Civil War", Sandburg's book is not a comprehensive narrative of the war. Comprised largely of material that appeared in "Lincoln: The War Years", it is more like Sandburg's impressions of the war than anything else. Rather than detailed descriptions of battles, Sandburg attempts to capture the horror and pathos in brief and vivid vignettes. While it is hard to imagine an account of Antietam that doesn't mention Lee's Lost Orders or a narrative that totally omits such incidents as the Trent Affair or at best makes only passing reference to the role of black troops, Sandburg's account is more concerned with the vast sweep of events and their meaning and the personalities that directed those events. His language, lyrical, moving and almost spiritual at times, is clearly informed by his poet's sensibility. There is some great stuff here.

[Craig Henriksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me more than a year to finish the book......an excellent resource of information on the Civil War from start to finish......Sandburg's writing style may have been perfect for it's time.....but requires a contemporary reader to have the discipline to 'read another chapter'....

[JRG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable readinv

Found the book poetica!. Enjoyed reading. History with emphasis on certain casualties that I had not heard before. Read it for the history and the way he writes

[David L Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

The best summation I've ever read, a huge gathering of facts,, clearly presented. Highly recommend this for all students of The American Civil War!

[Ron Nurmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what to make of this book as it is not exactly a history but it is telling the story of the U.S. Civil War.

[Timothy Dymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The Southern planter class read a handwriting on the wall of fate. Not yet did the letters spell out the shape of their doom - but doom enough had already come to make it a dark story’. That’s how Carl Sandburg starts his chapter on the Confederate Congress refusing, even while its rebellion is collapsing, to countenance freeing slaves to bolster the ranks of its army. Poet and journalist Sandburg wrote a mammoth life of Abraham Lincoln from which ‘Storm over the land’ is an extract. It was for decades a middlebrow classic of history writing, having pride of place in many a grandparent’s bookshelf. Nowadays Sandburg’s writing is treated rather sniffily by historians, largely because it is full of sentences like the one quoted (letters spelling a shape??). However Sandburg was writing an instructive national epic as much as a history, contrasting the tragedy of the secessionist folly with the hope offered by the Civil War’s outcome that government of the people, by the people and for the people did not vanish from the earth. You should read it with that in mind.

[Kristin Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading dozens of books with thousands of pages about the Civil War, I came across this book at a used book sale for $2. Carl Sandburg figures into my family's history as a resident of Galesburg, Illinois. My grandmother took piano lessons from Sandburg's sister, all being part of the Swedish immigrant community. I thought a poet's take on the Civil War would be worthwhile.
Once I got used to Sandburg's style, I discovered a passionate and emotional discourse on the Civil War. Chapter 15, Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg, is a particularly moving piece for me. Chapter 22, Crossing a Political High Divide, goes into the messy politics of the 1864 Presidential Campaign in fascinating detail.
Will this be the last book on the Civil War that I read? My husband laughs at me and says probably not. I don't know. I do know it will stay with me longer than most of the others I've read.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not inclined to be interested in history in my primary education, but had I read Sandburg's account of the Civil War I might have been inclined differently. Very readable. Not so in-depth that you get dragged into the details of every battle and strategy, but enough to see how hard it was for those involved and how brutally both sides fought. It shows the heart of Lincoln and some of his weakness that cost us needless years and lives and property in war (he put up with some weak generals in the early years of the war). Ultimately the South gave up because they fell in battle, not because of a change in heart. I highly recommend this reading to get an understanding about why and how the Civil War was fought. I am in awe of the soldiers on both sides of this war.

[Jack London · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Sandburg’s unannotated history of Lincoln in the Civil War. It is written in a somewhat dated but very populist voice, moving from event to event and anecdote to anecdote in a driven manner that ends, of course, with the murder of the President shortly before the last rebel army in the field advises the confederacy to ask for terms. It is a kindly volume, unsparing in its sad criticism of the foolishness of the south’s rush to war and the equal foolishness in the north to not engage in war for much of the first three years.

- See more at: http://jwlbooks.com/jack-london-revie...

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Civil War told by a poet...excellent reading! This is mostly a summary of the Civil War, but written by Carl Sandburg, whose rhythmic cadences give a beautiful sadness to a terrible event. There were many anecdotes, showing how the war touched individuals, and more information than usual about the problems facing the Confederate government. I've always liked Sandburg's writing, and this was no exception.

[Leroy Burkett · Rating 5 out of 5]

⚓️ Astonishing! As I recapped my memory of these 4 years of war, I’m amazed & broken hearted at the comments and losses. May we rehearse these memories into our next generations.
May “GOD Bless America”

[K$ · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a wizard Lincoln was, and what a distinctive writing style by Sandburg - very good with all these political assertions in the mix from city governing through DC

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read complete with anecdotes (which may or may not be apocryphal), this is a classic.

[Bob Wrathall]

Wonderful

[Timbabwe Sz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want it to end -- literally.
I got up to the first week in April, 1865,
twenty pages from the end, and
put it down.

I think I know how it ends.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

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