Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (2003) [+]
Jul 08 2024
Battle Cry of Freedom is a United States history book by James M McPherson covering from the early 1800's to the end of the US Civil War. It is part of the 12-volume Oxford History of the United States series (9 of 12 volumes published).
This is not a military history book. Although McPherson covers the wall well enough and devotes some focus on major battles this is more a book on the culture and politics. A lot of time is spent on the pre-war years showing how the country evolved into basically two separate regions. Contrast on how the slave economy took over in the South and how manufacturing and big cities took over in the North East. Lots of quotes from various speeches and writings to illustrate various attitudes and at least gives the Southern viewpoint a little legitimacy.
The politics evolved as the slavery issue came to dominate agendas and cause the Whig party to splinter into a couple of parties. One party was very anti-Catholic and therefore anti-immigration because most immigrants at the time were from Catholic regions. Eventually though the Republican party got lucky in an election and got enough of a coalition of Whigs, Northern Democrats and others to become a major power and elect Abraham Lincoln.
This kind of treatment continues during the war years. There are lots of politics on each side with war and peace factions. Not a huge amount on international efforts to make the Confederacy a legitimate state. A lot of stuff on how each government handled war-time governing and military organization. The battles themselves are more important on their larger effects than the battles themselves.
It's an interesting book and good history, though not the kind of book I'd keep in my library. I listened to it on audio book format read by Jonathan Davis. Almost 40 hours and Davis has a pleasant enough diction. I think this is the 2003 edition which is a bit abridged.
This is not a military history book. Although McPherson covers the wall well enough and devotes some focus on major battles this is more a book on the culture and politics. A lot of time is spent on the pre-war years showing how the country evolved into basically two separate regions. Contrast on how the slave economy took over in the South and how manufacturing and big cities took over in the North East. Lots of quotes from various speeches and writings to illustrate various attitudes and at least gives the Southern viewpoint a little legitimacy.
The politics evolved as the slavery issue came to dominate agendas and cause the Whig party to splinter into a couple of parties. One party was very anti-Catholic and therefore anti-immigration because most immigrants at the time were from Catholic regions. Eventually though the Republican party got lucky in an election and got enough of a coalition of Whigs, Northern Democrats and others to become a major power and elect Abraham Lincoln.
This kind of treatment continues during the war years. There are lots of politics on each side with war and peace factions. Not a huge amount on international efforts to make the Confederacy a legitimate state. A lot of stuff on how each government handled war-time governing and military organization. The battles themselves are more important on their larger effects than the battles themselves.
It's an interesting book and good history, though not the kind of book I'd keep in my library. I listened to it on audio book format read by Jonathan Davis. Almost 40 hours and Davis has a pleasant enough diction. I think this is the 2003 edition which is a bit abridged.