OUR LINCOLN: NEW PERSPECTIVES on LINCOLN and HIS WORLD edited by Eric Foner

 

Published in 2008 by W.W. Norton and Company.

This series of essays was most likely compiled to be the text for college-level classes by Eric Foner, a historian well-known for his expertise on the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, American Slavery and Reconstruction. Lincoln, of course, sits astride all of these issues.

There are 11 essays covering four broad topics: 

-Lincoln as "The President", looking at such things as how he acted as commander-in-chief and how Lincoln protected (and failed to protect) civil rights during the war.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

-Lincoln as "The Emancipator", focusing on his view of slavery, citizenship for African Americans, his zeal for colonizing freed slaves and his hot and cold relationship with abolitionists. 

-Lincoln "The Man" with essays about his writing style (and how it changed as the war went on), his views on religion (and how it also may have changed as the war went on) and his family life (his birth family and his married life).

-Lincoln in "Politics and Memory". This is the shortest section and the most politically charged. The author's comments on the Bush administration only make me wonder what he would have said about the Trump administration.

On the whole, this was a solid collection, but like all collections, not all of the items in the collection are equal. One essay was about Lincoln's control of how his physical image was shared through paintings, sculpture and photographs and I found it to be so tedious that I started skimming it and finally just skipped to the next essay. The three essays on the Lincoln as The Emancipator were all excellent, but they also had a lot of overlap. 

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: OUR LINCOLN: NEW PERSPECTIVES on LINCOLN and HIS WORLD edited by Eric Foner.

THE CIVIL WAR REMEMBERED: OFFICIAL NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HANDBOOK by various authors

 

Originally published in 2011 by Eastern National

Eastern National is the publisher of the official books published by the National Park Service. Their books are on display in National Park gift shops in visitor centers across the country. Most are pretty good - I've bought more than my share of them because they are compact volumes, full of great, pertinent illustrations printed on glossy paper and their information is solid. The problem is that the writing is always solid, if not particularly engrossing. 

The Civil War Remembered is an exception that pattern because the authors are historians who are also name brand Civil War authors - some are authors that have hit the top of the non-fiction best seller lists and you don't do that if you write dense prose.

There are 16 essays in this 175 page book. Each one covers a specific topic that makes for a rough narrative telling of the history by exploring themes such as America before the Civil War, what it is was like to serve in the military in the Civil War, how the war changed from a war to only preserve the Union to a war to end slavery in order to preserve the Union, industry in the Civil War, the West in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Some of the big names include James McPherson, Edward L. Ayers and Eric Foner. 

This book would serve as a great introduction to the Civil War for anyone. I was very pleased to see a review on Amazon that said that their college professor used this in class. This volume is that good. 

Highly recommended.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE CIVIL WAR REMEMBERED: OFFICIAL NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HANDBOOK.

AMERICAN HERITAGE: GREAT MINDS of HISTORY interviews by Roger Mudd

Published in 1999 by Wiley and Sons.

Roger Mudd, formerly of CBS and NBC news, interviewed five historians about their special topics of expertise. They are all solid interviews that allow the historians to tell why their topics are important. Mudd does a great job of letting the interviews flow along a natural conversational path, but he does interrupt with questions that ask for clarification or challenge a point.

The historians are: Gordon Wood discussing the American Revolution; James McPherson discussing the Civil War; Richard White discussing Westward Expansion; David McCullough discussing the Industrial Era; and Stephen Ambrose discussing World War II/Eisenhower/Nixon.

This was a lot like sitting down with a talented professor in a coffee shop and letting him/her go on about their favorite topic. They weren't lectures, but more like a conversation. I know the work of four of these five historians and have read quite a bit of McCullough, Ambrose and McPherson.

McPherson is my favorite of these three since he and I share a deep interest in the Civil War. I was surprised to learn that he came to study the Civil War later than I thought. McCullough's interview is interesting because of his wide-ranging interests. He discussed the Industrial Era, but he has done a lot of work outside of that time as well, including a great biography of Truman and a history of just the year 1776 during the American Revolution. Ambrose's interview very much felt like my previous impressions of Ambrose - great historian, occasionally a prickly personality.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. Very enjoyable read. It can be found on Amazon.com here: AMERICAN HERITAGE: GREAT MINDS of HISTORY interviews by Roger Mudd.

NPR AMERICAN CHRONICLES: THE CIVIL WAR (audiobook) by NPR

Published in 2011 by HighBridge Audio
Multicast performance
Duration: 2 hours, 59 minutes

NPR has searched through its archives and found 29 stories that make for a very interesting listen if you are a student of the Civil War.

There are interviews with historians, including James McPherson and Shelby Foote and authors like Tony Horwitz, Jay Winik and E.L. Doctorow. Sam Waterston reads the Gettysburg Address (so good!) and Hal Holbrook talks about a project of his about the impact of the Civil War on Iowa.

There are also interviews with regular people, like the African American family that comes to see the original Emancipation Proclamation and turns it into a profound and moving educational event.

None of it is very deep, but all of it is deeply interesting. This is a must-listen for all amateur historians of the Civil War.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found here: NPR American Chronicles: The Civil War.

EMBATTLED REBEL: JEFFERSON DAVIS as COMMANDER in CHIEF by James M. McPherson

Published in 2014 by Penguin Press

Famed Civil War historian James M. McPherson aims to fill in an historical gap by providing a biography of Jefferson Davis's Civil War years. He notes in his opening to Embattled Rebel that it is natural to make comparisons between Lincoln and Davis but those comparisons are often lopsided due to a lack of information. There are enough different Lincoln biographies to easily fill a truck. But, Davis is often a caricature - a difficult man who thought he could be general and commander-in-chief due to previous military experience - a man who refused to remove his friends from important military posts and also a man who carried a grudge.

That thumbnail sketch is largely true, but also incomplete. Thanks to the mass of information on Lincoln we are able to detect a sense of nuance.  A lot of source material on Davis never survived the Fall of Richmond. Even worse, many people who worked with him were unwilling to talk about it after the war - they just wanted to get on with their lives and put the war behind them. Even worse, others defended their own reputations by degrading his.

Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)

McPherson's biography of Davis pales in comparison to Doris Kearn Goodwin's work about the Lincoln Administration, Team of Rivals. Even so, this is a solid attempt to fill this glaring hole.

Even though this book mostly reinforces the stereotype view of Davis, it does provide a look into how hard it really was to be the President of the Confederate States of America. He was outgunned from the start and stayed that way throughout the war. It was very rare to have a Confederate force actually larger than the Union force it faced it battle.

But, just as it there was a shortage of men and supplies, there really was a shortage of top level officers. A truism often bandied about by Civil War devotees is that the Union had more soldiers but the Confederacy had better officers. It started out that way but battlefield deaths (Albert Sidney Johnston and "Stonewall" Jackson, to name two of the biggest losses) and difficult personalities combined against the Confederacy to even out things.  Davis is often criticized for holding on to officers like Braxton Bragg for too long but he really didn't have a lot of men with the expertise to manage an entire army. Take a look at the example of John Bell Hood - an aggressive Corps Commander who was promoted and went on to ruin an entire army in just a few months.

There really is not much new here, but it does the reader the service of collecting the information that would be scattered across a larger history of the war and consolidates it into one very readable, if smallish, book.

I rate this history 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Embattled Rebel.

War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 (audiobook) by James M. McPherson

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2012.
Read by Joe Barrett
Duration: 8 hours, 55 minutes.

Unabridged

James McPherson is undoubtedly the most popular living Civil War historian. He writes in a common, easy-to-understand style that flows nicely and does not dumb down the facts. His latest book, War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 continues that tradition.

Union Admiral David D. Porter -
Leader of the Naval forces in the
Vicksburg campaign.

If you read a typical Civil War history you get a just a little bit of the information, usually in passing, about the war on the open sea, in the bays, harbors, up and down the rivers and even in the swamps. McPherson reverses that arrangement in this book and focuses on the strategies, personalities and challenges that faced both navies and mentions the land campaigns in passing. If you are a frequent reader of Civil War books, little of this material will be new. But, the special focus does make the story of the naval forces more cohesive than is usually found in histories.

Starting with Fort Sumter and the formation of the Anaconda Plan, McPherson hits all of the typical highlights, including the Mason and Slidell Affair, privateers, the taking of New Orleans, the repeated tries to take Charleston, the Merrimack (Virginia) vs . the Monitor fight, the river campaigns in the West, including the long struggle for Vicksburg, the taking of Mobile ("Damn the Torpedoes! Full speed ahead!") and more. Typical of McPherson, he includes smaller stories that make the war more real and interesting, such as the time a Union gunboat captured a Confederate train and the cattle rustling gunboats.

Joe Barrett narrated the audiobook. He has sort of a "folksy" reading voice which is pleasant enough. His real strength, however, was the way he gave individual voices to direct quotes, including a soft southern accent for Union Admiral Farragut who was born in and lived in the south but went for the Union and a high-pitched accent for Lincoln. Movie directors love to give Lincoln a baritone voice but all accounts talk about his high-pitched Midwestern accent.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. A must-read for all serious students of the Civil War and/or the Navy.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 (The Littlefield History of the Civil War Era) 

 Reviewed on October 25, 2012.

Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862 (audiobook) by James McPherson

Does a brilliant job of looking at the meaning of the battle of Antietam

Published in 2002 by Recorded Books.
Read by Nelson Runger.
Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes.
Unabridged

I have nearly 90 books that cover the Civil War on my bookshelf. Most books that cover the Civil War compartmentalize the battles into little chapters with titles like "Chancellorsville", "Antietam" and "Shiloh". The battles are thoroughly covered but the feel for the larger flow of the war is sacrificed.

In Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862, McPherson dramatically sweeps the reader along and I was left with a renewed sense of amazement and respect for the fact that Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was able to fight, let alone go on the offensive against two separate armies and fight multiple, large battles from June through September of 1862.

McPherson does an extraordinary job of tying in many of the political and military threads of this war to demonstrate that Antietam was the day that determined the outcome of the war, and not the more popular belief that it was July 4, 1863 with the dual losses for the Confederacy at Vicksburg and Gettysburg.

George B. McClellan, the victor
of the Battle of Antietam despite
his many mistakes

McPherson provides multiple quotations from those involved in the political and military events of the time. In fact, at times the story is told mostly through choice quotes from generals, ambassadors and prominent private citizens such as Frederick Douglass and Horace Greeley.

The audiobook was well read by Nelson Runger. The audiobook lasts about 5 hours and 45 minutes and was a joy to listen to.
 
I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History)  

Reviewed on September 26, 2008.

Fields of Fury: The American Civil War by James McPherson

A great introduction to the Civil War by a first-rate historian

Published in 2002

Pulitzer Prize winner James McPherson's foray into children's literature, Fields of Fury: The American Civil War is a beautiful, well-written book that fits the bill perfectly.

McPherson briefly covers all aspects of the conflict, from "Bleeding Kansas" to the difficulties in Reconstruction. As a Civil War buff (I have over 75 books and have read dozens more) I can think of no main topic he did not touch upon. In fact, I added a few stories to my repertoire for my classes.

Most topics are covered with a two page spread - text on the even pages and a full page photo, map or painting spread on the facing page. Also, with every topic there is a "Quick Facts" section.

A famous photo of an escaped
slave named Gordon. This is one
tough images I mention in the
review. The picture is entitled
"The Scourged Back"

McPherson's descriptions of the personalities, the battles and the general strategies of the war are first-rate. He also touches on such topics as how the war was financed, the role of women in the war, the difficulties faced at home by the families of the soldiers.

 The publisher recommends this book for 4th to 8th graders. I would have to say 5th-8th graders. There are some graphic images of the war, including famous, but still arresting, photos of African Americans digging up buried soldiers (with 6 skulls and a leg still wearing a boot and pants on a litter) for re-burial and a photo of an escaped slave showing his heavily scarred back courtesy of repeated whippings from his owner. Also, the text about the Battle of Shiloh mentions an eyewitness account of a man who was leaning against a tree with his bloated intestines piled up in his lap. I'm not against children learning the awful truth of war and slavery but I'd wait one more year before introducing those images to kids.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Fields of Fury: The American Civil War

Reviewed on June 16, 2009.

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War by James McPherson

A "Must" for All Students of the Civil War

Published in 2009 by Oxford University Press.

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War is a collection of 16 essays by well-known historian James McPherson on a number of Civil War-related topics. Some of the essays are brand new, but most have been published before but have been re-worked for this book.

The essays fall into five broad categories:

1) Slavery and the Coming of War; 

2) The Lost Cause Revisited; 

3) Architects of Victory; 

4) Home Front and Battle Front; 

5) Lincoln.

McPherson discusses the causes of the war in the first essay - a brilliant essay entitled "And The War Came." McPherson directly confronts those that insist that slavery had no part in causing the war. Please, read this essay if you are one of those people before you make that argument again (if you don't want to buy the book for fear of supporting someone who skewers your particular point of view, get it at your library, read it in the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble - just read it!)

Essay number 4 is called "Was the Best Defense a Good Offense? Jefferson Davis and Confederate Strategies." I liked this one because I spent a lot of time as a young person playing a Civil War board game called Battle Cry and it was always a challenge to figure out how to defend the Mississippi River valley in the Confederacy so I could sympathize with Jefferson Davis's quandary. Turns out that I analyzed things about like Davis did most times.

"The Last Rebel: Jesse James" was an interesting look at what really was a tiny little slice of the Civil War that spawned one of America's most famous criminals. Fascinating stuff.

"Brahmans At War" was an essay I was prepared to blow off - who really cares about the Boston elite, Harvard grads, and their experience in the war? Wow, was I wrong. A great essay about fantastic men who led from the front and gave more than their share. I was awestruck by the tale of Captain John Kelliher who lost his arm, lower jaw, a shoulder blade, two ribs and a clavicle at Spotsylvania. He not only survived - he returned to the front to assume command of the regiment!

Great set of essays. Well-written, a master historian at the top of his game.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War by James McPherson.

Reviewed on August 4, 2010.

Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James McPherson

Originally printed in 2008.

The reviews are right, Tried By War is an unoriginal book, everything in it has already been said (literally by McPherson himself!) but when McPherson writes about the Civil War it's worth my time to read what he has to say, and if you are at all interested in the war, it's worthy of your time as well.

What is unique about the book is the focus on Lincoln as the leader of the armed forces. Yes, all histories of the war cover this aspect of Lincoln's presidency, but you have to tease it out of the larger text. For example, all of this was more than covered in Doris Kearns Goodwin's 944 page Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (an excellent read, by the way) but if you have little interest in the monetary policy of the Lincoln administration, the vagaries of the Lincoln administration's dealings with the European powers or don't care to read about the Homestead Act of 1862 (which had a profound affect on the development of the West) this may be your book. In it's own way it is a stripped down, mean and lean study of Abraham Lincoln at war.

I personally own more than 70 Civil War book and my wife rolls her eyes when I bring yet another one home. I always tell her that I find something new every time I read it (it also seems like the Confederates will win the war until Gettysburg every time I read about it, no matter who's writing it). This time, I found a quote I love from Lincoln about McClellan that fully demonstrated that Lincoln had no illusions about the man who he was depending on to save the Union. Lincoln noted that McClellan "had the capacity to make arrangements properly for a great conflict, but as the hour for action approached he became nervous and oppressed with the responsibility and hesitated to meet the crisis." (p. 82) I may have read the quote in 20 other books, but this time it stuck with me.

James McPherson

McPherson's beautiful touch as a writer jumps out on pages 261-263. He notes that Lincoln visited army hospitals and the soldiers surrounding Petersburg and Richmond in late March and early April of 1865. We get to see a bit of the frontier politician as he shows off a bit by splitting wood with the men. The war grinds to a finish as Lincoln himself tours Richmond with thousands of freed slaves crowding close to see "Father Abraham" and Lincoln sits behind Jefferson Davis's desk in the Confederate White House. Lincoln returns home and gives a speech about his plans for Reconstruction from a balcony of the White House and McPherson ends his telling of these remarkable set of occurrences with John Wilkes Booth's threat, "This will be the last speech he will ever make." Every student of the war knows about these events, but McPherson's touch makes them poignant and tragic.

So, the critics are correct, there is nothing new here, but it is well told and a great tale told well is always a treat.

I rated this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James McPherson.

Reviewed on June 8, 2010.

Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg by James McPherson

Well-written. Interesting. Nice amount of details.

Originally published in 2003.

Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg would be an excellent addition for any visitor to the battlefield. The chapters are short enough that a thoughtful tourist would have no problem reading them as he/she stood there.

It is a bit pricey for its size but it's a nifty guidebook nonetheless. I know I've seen similarly-priced tour books that weren't as well-written.

It would have helped to have pictures to help orient the tourist, but this would necessitate editing of the book if the Parks Department begins the restoration projects McPherson mentions (and hopes for). These include removing woods that have grown up since the battle and restoring fences and orchards that have been removed.

I own a number of McPherson's books - he is this generation's preeminent Civil War historian - and I'll be glad to put this one on the shelf with the others. Whenever I can convince my wife to let me return to Gettysburg (she gets bored after a couple of hours, I could spend days), I'll bring it along, that's for sure!

I rate this book 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg by James McPherson.

Reviewed on June 15, 2004.

The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by James McPherson

Published in 2003.

James McPherson is the gold standard when it comes to writing Civil War history. In The Negro's Civil War, Mcpherson has compiled a fantastic amount of source material concerning how Blacks felt and acted during the Civil War.

In the forward McPherson notes that there is "a need for a documentary collection that will present all aspects of the Negro's role in the war largely in the Negro's own words...this book is designed to fill that need." McPherson strings together quote after quote from Black newspapers, letters and speeches with relatively sparse commentary in between. There was an unexplained hole in the record and, thankfully, McPherson filled it.

The book addresses 22 topics - from pre-war commentary on Abraham Lincoln to postwar lamentations about the failure of Reconstruction.

James McPherson

My thoughts:

Unfortunately, the very strength of this book (all of the quotes) made it, at times, a tedious read for me. I found the style of the book to be a chore to read. I'll keep this book in my personal collection of Civil War material because as a collection of source material it is unmatched and it would be a fantastic source for anyone writing any history on the Civil War or African American history. As a straight history of the Civil War it is effective, informative but ultimately a chore to read.

I rate this one 3 stars out of 5 strictly as a readable history.

As a valuable historical resource, 5 out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Negro's Civil War by James McPherson.

Reviewed on May 14, 2004.