June 2014 Book(s) of the Month

Status
Not open for further replies.

ami

First Lady of CivilWarTalk
Super Moderator
Joined
Apr 1, 1999
Location
West By God Virginia
There are 2 awesome books you should dive into for the month of June!

the first is:
botmjune22014_zps81f850f8.jpg


http://www.amazon.com/War-Waters-Confederate-1861-1865-Littlefield/dp/0807835889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400075408&sr=8-1&keywords=War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865&tag=5336653536-20

the second is:
botmjune12014_zps7171596a.jpg


http://www.amazon.com/Lifeline-Confederacy-Blockade-Running-during/dp/0872497992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400075581&sr=8-1&keywords=Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War&tag=5336653536-20
 
Please note: for someone just beginning, I would very much prefer to recommend McPherson's War on the Waters. Although Wise's Lifeline of the Confederacy is indubitably a classic, a good part of it is likely too specific and detailed for someone seeking a general overview.
Does McPherson do a good job in the telling of the history? For some reason, I've been hesitant to read his things once he started to publish so many short dissertation type books as opposed to Battle Cry of Freedom. I guess with so many books out there, I always want to be sure to read the best resources, not just the newest. I suppose what I'm trying to say is "is the book written for the popular or with solid sources with academic value?"
 
It's a solid, smooth-reading overview of the naval side of the war, and it's currently in print. There are a number of other single-volume overviews of the war I would also recommend, but they may be harder to find in libraries, for example.


Related threads:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/forthcoming-book-war-on-the-waters.73294/

http://www.civilwartalk.com/threads/war-on-the-waters-by-james-m-mcpherson.76846/

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/mcphersons-war-on-the-waters-the-union-and-confederate-navies.77855/
 
Thank you. And I feel like I'm becoming a mentee/stalker of you:mask:. I hope I don't scare you away. Yours seem to be the posts I read and respond to most, but I really appreciate all your insight.
 
Please note: for someone just beginning, I would very much prefer to recommend McPherson's War on the Waters. Although Wise's Lifeline of the Confederacy is indubitably a classic, a good part of it is likely too specific and detailed for someone seeking a general overview.
I so love McPherson. Will probably read anything that guy writes!
 
Thank you. And I feel like I'm becoming a mentee/stalker of you:mask:. I hope I don't scare you away. Yours seem to be the posts I read and respond to most, but I really appreciate all your insight.

If I start feeling stalked, I'll just go into evasive maneuvers. :laugh: For my part, I'm interested in what you turn up about John G. Morrison...
 
I so love McPherson. Will probably read anything that guy writes!

When I was privileged to take a "behind the scenes" tour of the state archives of Ohio at the Ohio History Center (Civil War-oriented-- mentioned it elsewhere, but among the things I got to view was the preserved battle flag of the 23rd Ohio, an 'autograph book' of one of Morgan's officers including Morgan's signature, left behind when they escaped from the Ohio Pen, documents signed by Lincoln, Seward, and others, etc... was neat), one of the tour group asked the archivists if they'd ever met anyone famous, or some question like that. The answer was a couple of stories about Doris Kearns Goodwin and James McPherson. Goodwin apparently sent a researcher, never setting foot in the place herself; McPherson showed up on his own without fanfare and even helped out with some of the History Center's fundraising of his own accord. Not too difficult to figure out which one they preferred dealing with... :wink:
 
"Team of Rivals" was good. I'm "meh" about Goodwin otherwise. But I bring it up mostly to contrast with the much-more-unassuming McPherson.

McPherson wouldn't have been an obvious choice (from my point of view) to write a book on the navies, since the only really navy-related thing he'd done was publish (with his wife) the letters of Roswell H. Lamson (Lamson of the Gettysburg), although that was quite well done and is worth reading. But I was pretty happy with War on the Waters, even if it didn't really break new ground relative to prior one-volume naval histories. On the other hand, I'll bet seeing the book next to Battle Cry of Freedom or one of McPherson's other books will do more to publicize the naval war than, say, William M. Fowler's Under Two Flags, which is an excellent one-volume treatment; but Fowler doesn't have as much name recognition, unfortunately.
 
Please note: for someone just beginning, I would very much prefer to recommend McPherson's War on the Waters. Although Wise's Lifeline of the Confederacy is indubitably a classic, a good part of it is likely too specific and detailed for someone seeking a general overview.

As the one who recommended Lifeline, I agree that if one wants a general overview of naval history Lifeline isn't it; it only pertains to blockade running.

As for me, I'm going to order up War on the Waters since I really know almost nothing about CW naval matters (other than blockade running). Thanks to Mark for recommending it.
 
I haven't read McPherson's War on the Waters, but I'll second Mark's assessment of Wise's Lifeline. It's a landmark book on the naval side of things, and should probably be in anyone's large CW collection, but it's it's very specialized for a more general reader.
 
As many have said, McPherson's book is a good overview of the navy's role in the CW. But as McPherson says in his introduction, the US Navy's role was the dominant force on the water and Northern naval victories contributed more to Union success than did the Confederate navy contribute to Southern strategy.

Because of this, the focus of the book is more on the Union navy while paying due attention to Confederate efforts.

Wise's book is all about the blockade but geared towards the business of blockade running. It's not about the exciting runs through the blockade but rather about the governmental and business efforts to maintain the blockade running efforts.

The main focus is on how the gov't and private business obtained finances to procure ships and supplies and how successful that was. As Wise says in his introduction, to present this view his sources were such records as admiralty courts, port records, quartermaster records and vessel papers from the National Archives. He presents blockade-running in terms of the financial and logistical struggle the South went through to maintain it.

Wise's book has good maps of the Southern coast near major entry ports along with rivers and railroads that connected to them. He also has nice pictures of runners in the form of line drawings, drawings, photographs and models. Lastly the twenty-two appendices are records of just about all the runs made by steam powered ships into select major ports. The last appendix is a summary of every known steam powered runner that used these major ports. Data includes ship specs, attempts/successes and final outcomes of the runner. As many threads have shown, we all like to peruse CW statistics.

Another point worth mentioning is that Wise presents a good overview of the historiography of the blockade - from post-war to when his book was published.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top