The Legacy of the Civil War
by Robert Penn Warren
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert Penn WarrenIntroduction: Howard Jones
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-03-01
ISBN: 0803298013
Number of pages: 109
Publisher: Bison Books
Book Reviews of The Legacy of the Civil War
Book Review: A miniature classic of historical interpretation
Summary: 5 Stars
The noted poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren wrote several brilliant book-length essays on various subjects, including JEFFERSON DAVIS GETS HIS CITIZENSHIP BACK (which originally appeared in THE NEW YORKER) and INTEGRATION, but none better than this miniature classic of historical interpretation. In 1961, when LIFE magazine asked him for his thoughts on the centennial of the Civil War, he wrote this superb, thoughtful essay (originally subtitled "A Meditation on the Centennial"). In an extraordinarily compressed discussion, Warren notes a dizzying variety of effects that the war and the policies it brought in its wake had on American society. His two most important observations have to do with the ways that the North and the South used the war as alibis. For the victorious North, the war was a "treasury of virtue" that excused generations of corruption, short-sighted public policy, and neglect of national interests; after all, we won the war and freed the slaves. For the defeated South, the war was "the great alibi" that excused every failure to grapple with a region's pressing social and economic problems. Warren never wrote better than in these eloquent pages; this book should be required reading for anyone interested in the Civil War in particular or American history in general. Its reappearance, with a fine introduction by Howard Jones (author of MUTINY ON THE AMISTAD and other excellent histories of the Civil War era), is cause for celebration. -- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School, and Daniel M. Lyons Visiting Professor in American History, Brooklyn College/CUNY (1997-1998)
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