Who here as read James M. Mcpherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and how did you like it? I am asking this because I too am reading it and am enjoying it very much.
Thanks
__________________ Peter Williams
"It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow to fond of it."
I am as well, Lifeisgood. i started reading it at Christmas when I got it, set it down, and have started rereading. i like McPherson's frames of reference and his writing style, and he looks at the overall picture and not just the immediate one. Still have a long way to go (I'm up to only about 1850!) However, I know there is a good bit of ill regard around here to McPherson, one of my esteemed friends here regards him a vile lowdown Communist. I can see where he is coming from, but am eagerly plowing on...
__________________ 'It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag'
I think Battle Cry is a great book, and very well written as well. The sections on the 1850s are excellent, exciting and engaging. McPherson has a strong point of view, but that's not a flaw to me.
I read it a couple years ago and liked it very much. It gave alot about events and issues leading up to the war that I had not previously been familiar with.
My brother thought it boring, expecting something akin to a Shelby Foote war narrative (battles and campaigns, etc.), and gave up on it.
In this book, the fighting doesn't start till about 270 pages in, so if you are interested mostly in battles, generals, and soldiers, it might not be for you. All the way through, McPherson covers the continuing political issues as the war progresses.
I had been primarily interested in war narratives like those of Foote and Catton; this was the first book that gave me an interest in the 'off the battlefield' dimensions of that great war.
__________________ -
"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf
Well written, opionionated but I think superbly researched. Was one of my text books in College.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
I have probably read in excess of 400 books on the Civil War. I acquired McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom at a Civil War Round Table fund raiser (we auction off donated books). Anyhow, after seven years of researching the war, I finally read the book. Staggering piece of scholarship, despite the are minor errors - none of which I recall now. If you must study the war, this would be the volume to begin with. It helps you put things into perspective and how they interact with one another.
I've read the book thru, twice. I have it sitting next to me, on the floor in a large stack of books for easy access for rechecking comments and opinions, so..I've probably read it 3 or 4 times.
Because if McPhersons list of references I've purchased, and read, a goodly number of books. Gideo Welle's 3 vol. diary, Lincoln's complete papers, and 8 volumes of Allen Nevins, who McPherson excerpted from extensively. Would recomend this set very highly. Great history of the United States starting in 1848 thru 1865. Not just the war, but the entire US, politically, socially and economically.
Will have to say one thing about McPherson having his own perspective of events, I find no place where he deliberately distorts true facts (as known at the time of his writing) to prove his own agenda.
Chuck in IL.
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