Battle Cry of Freedom (Oxford History of the United States) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I read this book after having read two other books on the Battle of Gettysburg. I found that I wanted to know more about the circumstances surrounding that battle, the situation of the two armies, the generals, the politicians, and the state of the economies of the two sides engaged. But I was daunted by the plethora of information on the American Civil War. I had no desire to immerse myself in some three or four volume 2000-page work because, aside from believing myself unable to keep everything in perspective and not to get bogged down in minutiae, I reasoned that plain laziness and attention span problems would keep me from ever finishing anything like that. Plus I had to admit that it was the battles that interested me the most, and I despaired of having to read a separate book or two on each of the dozens of battles that are considered "major" during those four years.

Then I found this book: a single volume that encompasses the entire conflict from its military and political antecedents to the economic and sociological ingredients that forced the Union to enter into a war that would change forever the face of democracy. And this book did not give short shrift to the battles. To the contrary, the battles remain central and are accompanied by helpful maps.

I took a chance on this book and now that I have finished it I have to say that it is all that I could have hoped for.

Battle Cry of Freedom does what would appear to be the impossible: it includes virtually everything of consequence about the war and continues to hold the reader's interest. There are periods, especially when delving into some of the voting and politicking, the changes of party affiliations, voting data, etc., that get somewhat tedious. But if the reader is willing to work his way through these chapters he finds that he will come out the wiser, and that the next chapter, perhaps one on the next military campaign, will be better understood in itself because the larger context has been appreciated.

How James McPherson (no relation to the Union general of that name) was able to do this is nothing short of astonishing, a kind of scholarly and artistic legerdemain that allows so much to be packed into so short a space. If you want to know as much as your head can comfortably hold, and you do not want to read an entire shelf of your local library to do it, then this book is a must. My wife and I read large portions of this book out loud to one another (heartily recommended) and had our own discussions about it. We also read, concurrently, a shorter book, "Decisive Battles of the Civil War" as a companion piece to get another concise overview of the military engagements themselves.

McPherson has a definite Northern bias, but he is always fair about giving the other side its time in court. It is, after all, the North that won, and our country is what it is today because of that. The South's many disadvantages were built into its culture and ideology. Nonetheless, we intend to read Shelby Foote's three volumes to get a Southern perspective. I would not have had the gumption to go further if McPerson had not made the whole terrible period more understandable in the first place.

Do not be afraid to take the plunge.

EKW

The strength of this book is in the balanced approach it presents. There are plenty of books that are either pro-confederate and pro-union. We all have an internal bias and thus particular books will appeal at particular times. If you want a biased stance then 'Battle Cry' is not the one for you. There is no moralising in this book, no great ethical debates that must by their nature get in the way of the subject. It is both refreshing and attractive that McPherson presents the facts in a clear and objective manner. However, 'Battle Cry' is no dusty acedemic text, rather there is an intense passion within its pages that will make you stay up late at night wanting to read more.

McPherson has attempted and indeed suceeded in presenting so much more than an account of the battles of the war - he skillfully merges politics, the social and the economical and of course military history. The result is an overview that sweeps the reader before it. What I found particularly useful was the account of events leading up to the war. The chapters exploring the nature of the American people and their country before the war offered a detailed grounding from which the actual conflict could be viewed and thus analysed.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book to you. As a piece of historical writing it is without doubt excellent, but as a piece of Civil War historical writing it is of the highest order.