Rating: 
Summary: Good book
Review: A very impressive book. The Civil War has had many able writers, and Mr. Winik has done a good turn towards counting himself among their numbers. Not only does the author deal admirably with the events of April 1865, he does a good job summing up the war as a whole. I would not go so far as to say this is the only book to read on the Civil War, for there are many others better equiped for that. However, this is a great starting place.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre
Review: The most irritating thing to me about this book was the way the author would interrupt his own story about what is happening in the "present" (april '65) with character studies of the people involved. This seriously damaged the flow. I am a history buff, although the civil war is not one of my favorate eras. To me, this was a boring book.
Rating:
Summary: The last days of the Civil War
Review: April 1865 was a momentous month in which Lincoln was assassinated, Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to U.S. Grant, and the Civil War ended. The author contends that - but for the wisdom of Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and a few others - the South might have elected to wage guerrilla war with disastrous consequences for the reunification of these United States. "April 1865" reminds us that Lee was the commander of only one of several Confederate armies in the field and that delicate negotiations were required to halt hostilities across the length and breadth of the country. Lee and Grant set the tone for the surrender and the commanders of other armies followed suit - but this satisfactory end was by no means inevitable. Southern armies might have taken to the hills to continue the fight. The author also raises the interesting question as to why the U.S. was able to reunite as a country after a civil war when so many countries have not. In many of its details "April 1865" is fascinating. But there is a thin line between what the author calls "vivid writing" and excessive writing, and he erred on the side of excess at times, thereby damaging the credibility of his analysis. He would profit from Mark Twain's advice about adjectives, "kill most of them...They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart." The greatest virture of "April 1865" is probably its description of lesser known events, including the emancipation movement in the South, Johnson's surrender to Sherman, and Forrest's renunciation of guerrilla war. This is a worthwhile book about the end of the Civil War.
Rating: 
Summary: April, 1865-A Review From A Teacher's perspective
Review: I couldn't put this book down! My comments will mirror much of what has already been written by other reviewers. I would not hesitate to read parts of this book to the most difficult audience in America-middle school students! I especially appreciated the sections regarding Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. From a native Ohioan's point of view, I think that our textbooks in American history were a sham. I am recommending this book to my high school daughter so she can really get excited about history.
Rating:
Summary: The month that created a nation
Review: The one problem I have with this book is the way that Winik portrays Lee and Grant. Lee's virtues are portrayed as heroic,and even his vices are depicted as the manifestations of a superior man. Grant on the other hand, comes across as a loser who basically bumbled his way into being the first Lieutenant General since Washington. I hope the reader won't take Winik's word on Grant but read instead one of the many good Grant biographies out there. My favorite is "Grant" by Jean Edward Smith. Despite that caveat, the author brilliantly illustrates what I have been saying much more clumsily for years. That is that the American Revolution did not end with the victory at Yorktown. The American Revolution did not truly create a nation until the end of the Civil War and the convulsions of reconstruction that followed. As Winik says, it could easily have turned out differently anywhere along the way. This is an excellent read: highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Audio Version: How to Destroy a Magnificent Book
Review: There is no contesting the value of this book as written. Unfortunately, Mr. Winik's skills do not extend to reading the book aloud. Mr. Winik reads his material at 78 RPM. He lacks diction, enunciation, and cadence. Every sentence is a challenge and a distraction. His multiple and misplaced emphases in each sentence comes straight from fifth grade. There is absolutely no consideration of the listening reader's desire to hear, grasp, absorb, and appreciate; there is no thought that the spoken word might have beauty and dignity. Why, why, is Mr. Winik the narrator? Is it ego or greed? Whatever it is, Mr. Winik, Please, Please, Never Do It Again.
Rating:
Summary: Golly gee. The author sure is smart!
Review: Everyone who's smart and everyone who's stupid and everyone in between should rush out to buy and read this book. Why? Because the author is just so dad-gum smart. Smart smart smart smart smart! Boy is he smart! I wish I was smart. I'm not smart. I read books like this just hoping to be smart someday.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book about a compelling time in our history
Review: I was captivated by this book - couldn't put it down! I had read a lot of Civil War history, but this book had so many details that I hadn't read elsewhere. Reading about the condition of the Confederate army in April 1865 and about the graceful way Lee and Grant handled the surrender ... it was awesome. The book gave detailed biographies of Lee, Grant, and all the other officers, and there were so many things I found enthralling about them all that I hadn't previously known. Lincoln's assassination is told in all its heartbreak and sadness. I loved this book and its wonderful story of our nation in April 1865, and will read it again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and enlightening...a must read
Review: Jay Winik goes beyond the facts and figures around the Civil War. In dramatic fashion he captures how the decisions of the key players - Lincoln, Lee, Grant, Davis - shaped the future of this country. As much as the war turned based on the actions of the main players, it also demonstrated the value of unifying institutions such as West Point and previous US government administrations. Were it not for the conciliatory actions of Lincoln and Grant and the desire of Lee to do the best for the country, it is easy to see how the US could have become another Cambodia, Afganistan...or worse. I wish that high schools would assign these types of books over textbooks filled with rote facts, figures and bland retellings of events. Winik brings our vibrant history alive with all the tension, uncertainty and resolve that our leaders face yesterday and today.
Rating: 
Summary: An Idiot's Guide To The Civil War?
Review: An at times interesting and entertaining read, but not the calibre of either Catton nor Foote's masterful trilogies. Clearly, the author is something of a newcomer to the Civil War genre(MacPherson's endorsement is a likely quid pro quo of the publishing industry). Erroneous in a number of factual details and premised circumstances, as well as needlessly repetitive. Overall, a nuanced, sometimes stylized apologia to the Southern Cause, while downplaying if not altogether ignoring the darker aspects of post-Appomatox/Reconstruction Dixie (e.g., KKK, lynchings, Jim Crow, the poverty of sharecropping, complete and utter economic and social breakdown for the next 80-100 years, etc.). In sum, yuppie scholarship for more nostalgic "state's rights" devotees (on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line)and new-money Beltway suburban elites who long to be viewed (and deferred to)as Southern aristocrats in their own right. It's not so much the material, as the targeted audience.
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