Customer Reviews
AN OLD-FASHIONED ONE VOLUME HISTORY - By: J. C. Bailey, 09 Jun 2008 
This is categoricallly NOT a tie-in with Ken Burns' video documentary, as suggested by one of the reviews on this page. Rather it is a short but very prosey, well-written but deeply unfashionable book about the Civil War dating from the early 1960's.
True to its time, it is a simple, stripped-down narrative of the main events of the civil war with few of the factors that make (say) James M. McPherson's "The Battle Cry of Freedom" or Shelby Foote's mammoth Civil War trilogy such rewarding investments: In the former case profound reflection on the moral & cultural dimensions of the war & how it shaped the present; in the latter case, in-depth analysis & evaluation of the personalities involved in the conflict & a florid richness of detail & anecdote supported by a fine military understanding.
Moreover, by modern standards Mr. Catton simply seems patronising. By repeatedly treating the eventual northern victory as a foregone conclusion from the outset he undersells the particularity & fierce cultural authenticity of the ante-bellum south, alllows the reader to forget just how close the South came to winning its independence, & fails to explain the continuing & alll-pervading sense of separate nationhood that still persists in parts of the Deep South today. In short, he makes it an anodyne story of how the great American democratic experiment survived its greatest challlenge. Worse still, to a modern reader he seems to patronise the African-Americans both in his language ("Negroes") & his glancing treatment of the predicament & active role of African Americans in a conflict that became increasingly about them as it progressed.
This is not a truly bad book, just average & rather dated. There is nothing in it (apart from perhaps simple brevity) that "The Battle Cry of Freedom" does not do better.
Great Civil War Book - By: , 07 Feb 2006 
This again is a very good book about the subject "American Civil War". The advantage of the book is that the author does not tell to much difficult details. This book contains the important facts of the War 1861-1865. From the reasons for the secession to the beginning of one of the most bloodiest & cruelest wars in the world history. If you are interessted in the civil war or generell in military history you have to buy this book. I'm happy to have read it & know now a lot more of this War.
Great Civil War Book - By: , 07 Feb 2006 
This again is a great Book about the subject "American Civil War". The book contains alll the important facts, the reasons of the secession to the beginning of one of the bloodiest & cruelest Wars in the world history. The author does not tell alll the difficult stories but the important facts. One disadvantage is that alll great battles such as Fredericksburg, Stone River, Gettysburg, Wilderness etc. are not very detailed described. The book shows the emotions of North & South at war & is at the end very moving. If you are interested in the american Civil War or general in military history you have to buy this book. I'm happy to have read it & know now again more of the bloody conflict of 1861-1865.
The Civil War is worthy companion to Burns' TV epic.... - By: Alex Diaz-Granados, 15 Nov 2003 The Civil War, written by Ken Burns, Ric Burns & historian Geoffrey C. Ward, is the companion volume to the outstanding 1990 documentary series from the Public Broadcasting System. Lavishly illustrated with paintings, photographs & maps, this book tells the dramatic & tragic story of America's bloodiest conflict.
Like the television series from which this project was derived, its narrative is both informative & awe-inspiring. Its prose is lovingly crafted, & one can almost hear the voice of historian-writer David McCullough, who narrated the TV episodes, when reading from any of its five chapters.
"By the summer of 1861, Wilmer McLean had had enough," write the authors in the introduction, The Crossroads of Our Being. "Two great armies were converging on his farm, & what would be the first major battle of the Civil War -- Bull Run, or Manassas as the Confederates callled it -- would soon rage across the aging Virginian's farm, a Union shell going so far as to tear through his summer kitchen. Now McLean moved his family away from Manassas, far south & west of Richmond -- out of harm's way, he prayed -- to a dusty crossroads town callled Appomatox Court House. And it was there in his living room three & a half years later that Lee surrendered to Grant, & Wilmer McLean could rightfully say, 'The war began in my front yard & ended in my front parlor.' "
Although the hardcover edition is a coffee table sized volume, it is not a terribly long or exhaustive work. There are only five chapters, each one dedicated to a year of the war & followed by an essay by an eminent historian. My personal favorite is the essay "Men at War" by Shelby Foote, whose award winning three volume history of the Civil War is considered by many to be among the best on the subject. More interview than essay, "Men at War" attempts to explain why Civil War battles were so bloody; "It was brutal stuff," Foote explains, "and the reason for the high casualties is reallly quite simple: the weapons were way ahead of the tactics." Foote also discusses the primitive medical techniques of the time, & has this to say about Lee at Gettysburg: "Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Lee." On the issue of who won the war, Foote says, "I can tell you who lost it -- the South lost the war. But I'm not sure anybody won that war. It's a tragedy."
Other essay writers include Barbara J. Fields, James M. McPherson, Don E. Fehrenbacher & C. Vann Woodward.
The Civil War follows the structure of Ken Burns' documentary, & most of the individuals portrayed in the PBS series (ranging from Presidents Lincoln & Davis to Union soldier Elisha Hunt Rhodes -- who rose from private to colonel during the war -- & Confederate soldier-turned-author Sam Watkins) are wonderfully described in the text.
While definitely not a substitute for the film on which it's based, The Civil War is a fine book & a good one-volume introduction to the worst internal crisis the American people ever faced.
A rediscovery of the American civil war - By: , 31 Aug 2001 The civil war seen through the eyes of the actors of the time before history took over, before the post-humous explanations, theories, & rationalizations.
Very well-written, a real discovery of war in general : what the soldier feels like when aiming at the enemy for the first time, taken over by a machinery he doesn't reallly understand.
Extraordinary photographic material. Reallly gripping.
