Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) | James M. McPherson | Excellent treatment of the war and its causes

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Battle Cry of Free...

	Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) James M. McPherson Oxford University Press, USA, 2003 - 952 pages average customer review:based on 179 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beyond the X's and O's

This Pulitzer Prize winning book is touted by many as the `best one-volume history of the Civil War'. McPherson's preview says that US history, and the Civil War in particular, are a tapestry of many economic, religious, and social issues and that his intent is to weave them all together into a hermeneutical lesson as opposed to a topical one, since they all interact. He also gives us some history leading up to the Civil War and some history following the Civil War, since there is no such thing as a vacuum in history. It is about the X's and O's of the battles of the Civil War, as well as the reasons why the Civil War was inevitable.

McPherson does a masterful job of orchestrating the battle action in a detailed, but flowing manner, which was a little too much for me, but probably ideal for a genuine Civil War buff; he lets you know how complicated and confusing the battles must have been from the viewpoint of the participants. I was able to cull out of it what I was looking for, an overall picture of the flow of military action and a sense of what it must have been like.

He also has a way of bringing the reader right down into the scene by concise and telling quotes from the principals and the average person there. An example is the young Confederate who replied when asked why he was fighting: "I'm fighting because you are down here." The quotes, sometimes from unguarded, private correspondence, also helped you to get to know some of the principals up close, which was one of my main reasons for reading the book. McClellan, for example, was cautious, defensive, and arrogant. Lincoln was surgically concise, but almost painfully patient. Lee was aristocratic and noble, but a gambler at heart. Grant was quiet, reserved, responsible to a fault, and fearsome in his focus. I felt like cheering when he entered the picture, and doggedly persisted until finally overcoming Lee and his wheeling, dealing, smoke-and-mirrors style of leadership.

The book was illustrated to show plates of soldiers and battle scenes, as well as maps of the major battles. It also had a lot of political cartoons of the time which showed me that politics today is fairly mild compared to then. It was no-holds barred and often tastelessly racist, even in the North.

What I was really interested in were the attitudes and the stories behind the stories. I was astonished that the ineptitude of the Northern military leadership early in the war, squandering golden chances to end the war, actually promoted the end of slavery. I learned that the Reformation was a rudimentary cause of the Northern victory, even though it had taken place in Europe in the middle 1500's. I found that the Civil War was part of a bigger battle between the old rural ways of life (the past) versus the new industrialized way of life (the future). I was also intrigued by the plain irony of the slave-owning South feeling `tyrannized' and made into`vassalage' to the North. (Maybe they should have looked into the mirror.)You will have to read the book to see why and how these themes played out; it was fascinating to me.

This was a great book to get beyond the X's and O's of the Civil War battles.

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Excellent treatment of the war and its causes

Since its publication nearly 20 years ago, Professor McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom has enjoyed the status as the definitive single volume treatment of the Civil War. Over the years I have read Shelby Foote's great three part "Narrative History" and the three part Bruce Catton Civil War Trilogy, while those accounts are somewhat easier reads written with a novelist's touch, there is certainly much here to be admired.

McPherson is not content to merely provide an account of the battles, troop movements and casualty lists in the war, although to be sure some of that information is provided. Instead he starts out with a painstaking examination of the American society in the decades leading up to the war, devoting the first 250 or so pages of the book to the political, economic and social changes facing the nation during that period. By the time fighting starts in earnest, the book is about one third finished.

Occasionally Battle Cry of Freedom goes off in tangents, such as treatment of draft riots, political elections in border states, etc., which were all thoroughly-researched and illuminating. However some casual history buffs, and those more interested in accounts of the famous battles and commanders, might get a little bogged down in details during some of these chapters. Overall, I think this is a very well-written history text, clearly written by a historian, while books by Catton and Foote read like they were written by novelists.

You come away with this book understanding that Prof. McPherson has some strong opinions regarding many of the principal players in this conflict. He clearly has great admiration for Lincoln, as an astute politician as well as an emancipator. Grant and Sheridan come across as heroes, to no great surprise. McPherson has little use for Joe Johnston and McClellan, who both come across as windbags hestitant to ever fight and lose a battle and thus tarnish their legacy. McPherson seems to regard Ambrose Burnside as brave, loyal to a fault, but utterly incompetent; likewise John Bell Hood is brave and impetuous, but utterly outclassed by General Sherman. As for Jefferson Davis, McPherson is fond of quoting Davis' fiery speeches and bold pronouncements of impending victory, even as the Confederacy was collapsing around him, but you get the sense that the author understood and accounted for the extraordinary pressures facing Davis, and the impossibility of his task.

One other interesting note - I was amazed at how often McPherson quoted earlier works by Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton as sources in his footnotes. To be sure Battlecry of Freedom is a thoroughly well-researched text, but I was surprised how often a quote from a general or an account of a battlefield was attributed to one of Catton or Foote's histories, rather than the original sources.

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Great Book--Excellent Read--Highly Informative.

I am enthralled and intrigued with the history of the Civil War. I read history for information,answers to questions, as well as the authors incitefullmess. This book is an easy read, with flowing commentary that provides answers, and makes the reader THINK? This is the BEST book I have ever read about this subject.
The many events that occur are quite clear and plausible. I highly recommend it.

The best short history of the Civil War

This is quite simply the best short comprehensive history of the Civil War available, and has been since it was first published 20 years ago. It was the best short history of anything since Gibbon, and nothing has really rivalled it since.
McPherson places battles, people and politics in a definitive context that strikes the reader as being as close as any human can come to having a "true" understanding of that War. It is EXTREMELY well written as well, and set the stage for the Ambroses and McCulloughs who followed through and popularized scholarly history.

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