Rating: 
Summary: Start here if you have read nothing on the US Civil War
Review: Note: I've written the following with the non-American reader (or the American reader who has read very little on the American Civil War) in mind.The American Civil War and particularly its end, in both manner and means, completed that which was begun in 1776. Previously "Americans had a constitution and a country before they had a nation." (p.373) The artificial state or series of states that existed before had now been forged in battle, firstly by southern consciousness , then by northern community and finally by Lincoln's assassination which engendered remorse even from Robert E. Lee himself. Laying Lincoln to rest was counterpart to Lee's surrender at Appomattox, I'd say. It wasn't just a president that was laid to rest, but the war too; and as parcel to that, the past as well---two nations growing in consciousness and being made into one (or at least put on the path toward such). That is the importance of the Civil War. It is the focus of this book; the developments on how this war did end, with enough of its antecedent details so that it requires no previous study or knowledge of Civil War history to appreciate it. The United States was a federal structure from its inception, not a national one; as such, citizens who had cast off their Britishness had little to replace such with, thereby strenthening ones loyalties to particular states. Most citizens had little experience other than a casual association through the post office with their federal government in fact. Meanwhile, the seemingly everpresent balance mantained in Washington between the slaveholding, farming south and industrializing (more populous) north; between its aristocratic past and future self, or progressive self, was being fought out over the issue of the possible expansion or curtailment of slavery. April 1865 was the month in which this issue was conclusively decided, but the manner in which it was, and that it was at all is the focus of this enjoyable read. If you are keenly interested in the American Civil War you ought to read this book. It is worth your time; it is, moreover, even if you have but a passing interest in this subject, just enough to delve into one book on the subject---388 pages to understand the heart of the American Civil War is more than a fair bargain, I'd say. I don't think you can understand the USA if you don't know anything about this era and the manner in which a multitude of states were forged into the beginning of a nation. The battles of the Civil War make fascinating reading too (and the actual battle sites are wonderful to visit as well), but your interest would be better served by reading this book before becoming absorbed in snapshots of the war as provided by studies on Gettysburg, Lee's command, or whatever. Cheers
Rating:
Summary: LIVING HISTORY
Review: The phrase "living history" is often falsly ascribed to books that take the reader back to a period and the events being written about. In the case of Jay Winik's "April 1865", this phrase is an understatement. Winik has managed to achieve what so few writers ever come close too. He weaves the complex web of events that and individuals who helped shape the UNITED STATES that we know and love into a narrative which is truely magnificent. The political, military and above all moral dilemmas facing Lee, Grant, Lincoln et al in the closing days of the Civil War come to life at the end of Winik's fluid penmanship. One can only imagine the truely appaling consequences for all involved in that bloody conflict as the remnants of Lee's once great army struggled to escape the jaws of Grant's seemingly endless onslaught. Again Winik takes the reader into the thoughts of the adversaries, both those who would ultimately decide the fate of both armies, and the men who struggled to understand why they were there and what they were fighting and dying for. Winik more so than any Civil War writer todate encapsulates the motivations of various individuals - Union and Confederate - and the way in which parties on both sides could have chosen a far more horrific and uncertain outcome. From the prelude to the last page, Winik's unique style of conveying such a complex and oft misunderstood period in our history, will keep the reader enthralled and longing for more. This work truely deserves to become one of the standard texts on any Civil War reading list and should become a classic. A truely magnificent achievement!
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Overview for the naive or the expert
Review: Undoubtedly there are hundreds of books that delve into the details of every battle and/or the endless what if's, causes and effects of the Civil War. This book however is a wonderfully written story that simply puts the history of the Civil War not only into perspective, but how the precise ending allowed this country to heal and eventually become a country for the first time. If you are looking for just one book to enable you to intelligently discuss the broader reasons for the Civil War as well as how America became a true nation for the first time, this is your read.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to begin study of American Civil War
Review: The American Civil War and particularly its end, in both manner and means, completed that which was begun in 1776. Previously "Americans had a constitution and a country before they had a nation." (p.373) The artificial state or series of states that existed before had now been forged in battle, firstly by southern consciousness , then by northern community and finally by Lincoln's assassination which engendered remorse even from Robert E. Lee himself. Laying Lincoln to rest was counterpart to Lee's surrender at Appomattox, I'd say. It wasn't just a president that was laid to rest, but the war too; and as parcel to that, the past as well---two nations growing in consciousness and being made into one (or at least put on the path toward such). That is the importance of the Civil War. It is the focus of this book; the developments on how this war did end, with enough of its antecedent details so that it requires no previous study or knowledge of Civil War history to appreciate it. The United States was a federal structure from its inception, not a national one; as such, citizens who had cast off their Britishness had little to replace such with, thereby strenthening ones loyalties to particular states. Most citizens had little experience other than a casual association through the post office with their federal government in fact. Meanwhile, the seemingly everpresent balance mantained in Washington between the slaveholding, farming south and industrializing (more populous) north; between its aristocratic past and future self, or progressive self, was being fought out over the issue of the possible expansion or curtailment of slavery. April 1865 was the month in which this issue was conclusively decided, but the manner in which it was, and that it was at all is the focus of this enjoyable read. If you are keenly interested in the American Civil War you ought to read this book. It is worth your time; it is, moreover, even if you have but a passing interest in this subject, just enough to delve into one book on the subject---388 pages to understand the heart of the American Civil War is more than a fair bargain, I'd say. I don't think you can understand the USA if you don't know anything about this era and the manner in which a multitude of states were forged into the beginning of a nation. The battles of the Civil War make fascinating reading too (and the actual battle sites are wonderful to visit as well), but your interest would be better served by reading this book before becoming absorbed in snapshots of the war as provided by studies on Gettysburg, Lee's command, or whatever. Cheers
Rating:
Summary: Double That - 10 Stars
Review: Depending on your point of view, you may wince a little at the title of this book, but if you pick it up you won't let it out of your sight until you've finished it. The thesis is all that could have happened in that last month of the US Civil War but didn't. And all that did happen despite the odds against it. Weaved expertly throughout the thesis, you'll find some truly excellent, spell-binding descriptions and summaries of the lives of Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Sherman, Forrest, Johnston, and others; of the surrender at Appomattox, the deliberations between Sherman and Johnston, the assassination of Lincoln and the chaos and danger that ensued; of the destruction of the south, the psychological damage inflicted on the entire nation; and finally, you will come to truly understand how pivotal the Civil War was in the history of the United States -- more pivotal, probably, than any other event in our history -- and how amazing it is that we stand where we do today in spite of it. As if all this isn't enough, you'll also find an amazing summary of Thomas Jefferson's life and thought, some fascinating constitutional history, a brief and excellent history of guerilla warfare, and endless enlightening (and relevant) tidbits about lots of other historical figures of the US and the world. The book is tightly focused and sweeping all at once. In summary -- you just have to read it. Get a copy right now!
Rating: 
Summary: Introduction raises serious scholarship questions
Review: I was reading the introduction to Winik's book, and it seemed somehow familiar. Then, it hit me: it's almost identical to William Manchester's brilliant introduction to his book on Winston Churchill. I pulled out both books and couldn't believe how closely Winik's introduction parallels Manchester -- so much so that it raises issues of whether its plagierized. While I'm enjoying the book, it does make me wonder if other parts of the book likewise lack originality????
Rating: 
Summary: April 1865--Well-Written Truths and Glaring Errors
Review: Jay Winik is an exceptional narrator. "April 1865--The Month that Saved America," his account of the closing weeks of the War Between the States, blends eloquent writing and historical insight with little-known biographical nuggets about key figures in the real-life drama: Lee, Grant, Sherman, Davis, Johnston, Forrest and others. His book would rate five stars but for its remarkable omissions and errors regarding the most pivotal event of April, 1865...the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Winik probes deeply into the weeks surrounding the fall of Richmond and the Grant-Lee truce at Appomattox. He credits both generals with high-mindedness, statesmanship, and with placing the welfare of a broken nation in need of healing ahead of provincial and military considerations. Likewise, he finds in Generals Sherman and Johnston, who signed an armistice in North Carolina two weeks after Appomattox, a preference for reconciliation over hatred and punitiveness. In these sections Winik's research is thorough, his analysis astute. At times his book is a page-turner.
But he fails badly regarding the assassination story. In detailing Lincoln's last full day of life, April 14, Winik omits a crucial meeting at the War Department Telegraph Office, at which Lincoln asked Secretary of War Stanton to lend him the services of Major Thomas Eckert, whom Lincoln said he had seen "break pokers over his arm," for extra protection at Ford's Theater that night. Stanton refused Lincoln's request, claiming he had "things for Eckert to do," which later proved a falsehood.
Instead, Winik asserts the opposite, that Lincoln blithely refused all offers of security help up to the very end. This is simply false, as has been detailed in many books on the assassination. Winik compounds his mistake with an even more glaring error regarding the arrests of Lewis Paine and George Atzerodt, two of John Wilkes Booth's accomplices in the abduction plot, which dominated Booth's thoughts until the very end, and the eleventh-hour assassination plot.
Winik asserts that both Paine and Atzerodt were placed under arrest on the morning of April 15. Clearly Winik's source for this is David Herbert Donald, who make the same mistake in his otherwise well-researched book, "Lincoln," published in 1995.
Paine was in fact arrested at the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt (who is never mentioned in Winik's book) on Monday, April 17; when Mrs. Surratt swore to the arresting soldiers, "Before God, I've never seen this man (Paine) before," and this was later proven false, it contributed to her becoming the first woman executed in the United States. The execution in turn added
significantly to the growth of a then-nascent 19th-century women's movement. For one of Professor Donald's stature to have made such an error is stunning; for Mr. Winik to have repeated it almost verbatim is shocking.
Mr. Winik also gives short shrift to the political dominance of Radical Republicans of the era, in particular Stanton. If April 1865 was the "month that saved America," as it arguably was, the months and years that followed, with Radicals and President Andrew Johnson fighting their petty political battles amid the growing lawlessness and carpetbagging of the Reconstruction Era, surely delayed the advance of civil rights for almost 100 years.
Rating:
Summary: enlightening
Review: Less a play-by-play of the events of that month than a character study of the players, Winik's edifying "April 1865" focuses not so much on the war itself, but what it meant to our nation, and specifically, what the last six weeks of the war did for our nation. Winik forced me to think of the war in a whole new light.
Winik has an excellent understanding of how the Civil War defined us as a nation. He shows how fragile we were at that time and how easily history could have taken an alternate path, much like similar situations of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ireland, etc... Most Civil War curriculum leaves the reader thinking the war had a hard stop. I personally never realized how different attitudes from the various Confederate generals could have resulted in a guerilla effort that could have prolonged the rebellion even to this day. This turn of events has played out time and time again in history.
While the prose was enjoyable, I was sometimes put off with an element of his writing style where he would frequently take dives into minutiae that simply did not fit into the larger context. However, this is overshadowed by his command of the subject matter in both the historical context and the philosophical context.
For those wanting to understand the larger meaning of the war, this is one of the best books I have found.
Rating:
Summary: A war that could have had a totally different outcome
Review: Winik has done a masterful job of putting together the last few months of the civil war in a way that I have not seen done before. For many Americans, the end of the war, and the way that it ended was inevitable given the industrial strength of the North and the inroads made by Sherman and Grant into the Southern bastions. But there were choices available, and advocated, to surrender, such as continuing a guerilla war without a formal end. Had Lee chosen that alternative, the US as we know it would probably not have survived. With increasing opposition to the war in the northern states, riots breaking out as protests were suppressed over the draft, and with ever mounting causalities, it is easy to assume that northern politicians would have been forced to accept a truce and a dissolution of the union as the war dragged on into the 1870's. Slavery would still be permitted or reinstated in the Confederacy, the US would be torn as it expanded West on the slave issue, and the country would be a shadow of the industrial and military power that it became. Only a few men making different decisions prevented this from happening. General Lee is far more a hero for taking the position of statesmen and surrendering when many around him were adamant about continuing the fight. The quagmire of the Civil War, as with Vietnam, was as much a political one as it was a military one. If the same forces for compromise and bringing an end to the war been in place in 1865 as they were in 1972, slavery would probably still exist.
Rating:
Summary: This is how history should be written
Review: Winik asserts that the month of April 1865 was the single most important month in the history of the United States due to the confluence of historical events and decisions that came with the end of the Civil War.
The decision include Lincoln's plan for a "soft" peace rather than a vengelful one. Lee's decision not to opt for guerrilla warfare but rather surrender and urge his men to become good citizens for their country (meaning the USA), Johnston's similar decision in North Carolina, the assassination of Lincoln, the uncertain rules of Presidential succession, the North's collective decision not to lash out blindly at a prostrate South in revenge for Lincoln's murder and a host of other issues.
My take: Winik is one of that new breed of historian that knows that good writing as at least as important as good research (You can't teach anything if you write poorly). Winik's synopsis of the issues of slavery and the Wilderness campaign are so good that if I ever get the chance to teach US history again I am going to copy them and hand them out to my students.
This book renewed my awe of Robert E. Lee as a man. Flawed, like all of us, he made the exact right decisions at the end. Perhaps the most interesting was in the summer of 1865 - the war was over and Lee was back in Richmond awaiting his fate. It is communion Sunday and a black man decided to assert his rights as a free man and he goes up to the alter FIRST to get communion (traditionally, blacks were last). The whole church stops. The minister is flustered at the change of social niceties. Lee gets up - goes up to the front and stands next to the man for Communion. Now, the service must go on- because you can't refuse Robert E. Lee. Together, the two men integrated the church - with no prior planning. Lee just knew that this was the way it had to be now, so get over it.
Great book. I heartily recommend it.
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