The Civil War: An Illustrated History
by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns, Ken Burns
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Book Summary Information
Author: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, Ric BurnsEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 1990-08-31
ISBN: 1299134106
Number of pages: 425
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of The Civil War: An Illustrated History
Book Review: A great place to start...
Summary: 5 Stars
From the very beginning, I was enthralled with the PBS series by Ken Burns, The Civil War. So why it took me so many years to read The Civil War companion book, I'll never know. Written by Geoffrey Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, it was like discovering lost treasure.
The Civil War was a momentous event in the history of our nation, and thousands and thousands of books have been written on almost every possible angle. But if a Civil War neophyte had to bring himself up to speed as quickly as possible, this book is the way to go. The Civil War obviously covers all of the major events from John Brown, to the firing on Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox. The battles are done in a way that makes them easy to understand with maps and troop movements for clarification. The authors provide portraits of the major players (Lincoln, Davis, Lee, Grant, Jackson, Sherman, etc.) as well as some still important but lesser-known individuals (Clara Barton). But what I really enjoyed were the side-stories, anecdotes and trivia to be found here. We learn about the railroads, the medical corps, the engineers, the supplies, the uniforms, the ironclads, the weapons, and black soldiers. The north had much better marching songs. "A southern major who listened to a northern officer sing some of them after the war admitted `Gentlemen, if we'd had your songs, we'd have licked you out of your boots.'"
What truly makes The Civil War come alive is the liberal use of letters and journal entries from the war. Throughout, we hear the voices of Sam Watkins (1st Tennessee Regiment) and Elisha Hunt Rhodes (2nd Rhode Island Volunteers) as they give us a first-hand account of their long war years. They also bring the story alive by the many photographs, drawings and maps that they've assembled.
The authors not only give us all this fascinating information, but then they cement it together with commentary by Civil War experts interspersed throughout. Such notables as Shelby Foote, Barbara J. Fields, James M. McPherson, C. Vann Woodward and Don E. Fehrenbacher tell us what the Civil War meant to us as individuals and as a nation. According to Foote, "the Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things."
Now that I've become reacquainted with the work of Ken Burns and crew, I'm definitely going to go back and watch the series again. This time, I plan to see it on DVD.
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