#Battle cry of freedom free#

After all the hullabalooh about Robert E. There are some great outlines of the generals of Ulysses Grant and Robert E. The launch of the rifle resulted in a major increase in casualties with old school tactics. I would say I lost some interest when the war began, as the book goes into considerable detail on the battles and the significant escalation in the amount of casualties as battles progressed.

#Battle cry of freedom free#

It is quite interesting that Democratic voters, particularly the Irish contingent, were very reluctant to the join the fight to free southern slaves (the Irish were afraid cheap labour would then flood the north and deprive them of work). The increasing casualties and the decision (need) to enlist black soldiers fully swung the war that way. Although Lincoln, and many of his soldiers, did not think the war was about that, in essence the matter was inescapable. Soon after the war begins, the freeing of slaves from Confederate territory is really what settles the context of the war. However, it seems quite clear that is about the freedom to have slaves or not. McPherson tries to be sympathetic to the Confederate view that the war was not about slavery but rather freedom (indeed one must ask the question if Battle Cry for Freedom does actually allude to both sides). States wanted to secede from the Union and not be beholden to the whims of Washington DC. The rise of the Lincoln and the newly formed Republican Party put the south on edge, with their principles, rather than policies, of being anti-slavery. That swing the balance towards a Union where there were more slave states than non. McPherson makes the excellent point that the expansion of the 'Union' south and westwards swallowed up new slave states. The first 300 pages of the book are the best in my opinion, where McPherson draws a magnificent line between the end of the Mexican War in 1848 and the first shots of the Civil War (some papers referenced as early as 1851 'first shots of Civil War at Christiana'). I finally settled on Battle Cry For Freedom by James McPherson and am entirely satisfied with the book - it is a brilliant summation of the economic, political and military details before and during the war. Trawling through the masses of Civil War books, it became difficult to choose one alone. Probably the best single-volume history of America's Civil War yet written ― Economist About the Author McPherson has fresh approaches to the war's background, the four years of struggle and the aftermath ― Washington Post Book World McPherson wears with equal ease the hats of biographer, economist, sociologist and military historian. He has written what will surely become the standard one-volume history of the great conflict which forged America as a united nation ― Independent Absolutely brilliant. historical writing of the highest order ― The New York Times A distinguished contribution to American history.

Omitting nothing important, whether military, political or economic, he yet manages to make everything he touches drive the narrative forward. Above all, everything is in a living relationship with everything else. The definitive study, meticulous in its scholarship and compulsive in its readability ― Financial Times McPherson is wonderfully lucid.

The whole panorama of the Civil War is captured in these pages, from the military campaign, which is described with vividness, immediacy, a grasp of strategy and logistics, and a keen awareness of the military leaders and the common soldiers involved, to its political and social aspects.

With a broad historical sweep, it traces the heightening sectional conflict of the 1850s: the growing estrangement of the South and its impassioned defence of slavery the formation of the Republican Party in the North, with its increasing opposition to slavery and the struggle over territorial expansion, with its accompanying social tensions and economic expansion. This is magic' The New York Times This book covers one of the most turbulent periods of the USA's history, from the Mexican War in 1848 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across. It is a masterful work' New York Review of Books ' Compellingly readable. that effectively integrates in one volume social, political and military events from the immediate aftermath of the Mexican War through the sectional strife of the 1850s, the secession movement, and the Civil War. It will shock you for what it tells you about politics in America today.' Richard Ford ' A remarkably wide-ranging synthesis of the history of the 1850s and the Civil War. It will open your eyes about race history in America. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History 'Read it.