Rating: 
Summary: What more can be said about a classic? I'll try...
Review: After almost 18 months, between reading books for work and professional certification, reading boring books for graduate school, running the NYC marathon, and getting married, I managed to finish all three volumes of Shelby Foote's "The Civil War: A Narrative". Once you start this journey, I recommend that you do not finish until you've read all 3000 pages.It has been said that more books have been written about the United States Civil War than any other topic. I can recall my eleventh grade history teacher, Mrs. Troccia, telling is how before the Civil War, our nation was referred to as (lower case) the United States. After four plus years of bloodshed, tens of thousands of lives lost, and social, political, and economic upheaval, our nation emerged as (upper case) The United States. Shelby Foote's excellent treatment of the seminal event in US History helps me understand this difference in semantics. I've read other accounts of the Civil War by McPherson, Sears, and Oates. While I've enjoyed all, Mr. Foote's treatment of the epic struggle brings the voices of the participants alive like no one else. Like many, I began reading the series with the impression that the Civil War was primarily a war fought in East. After completing the series, I gained a new appreciation of the importance of the Western theatre of combat, and a particularly fond appreciation for Generals Grant and (especially) Sherman. If I were forced to make one negative comment about Mr. Foote's treatment of the saga, it would be that there was not enough coverage of the politics, both north and south, during the era. This is not to say that the author completely ignored politics. For example, Foote does an excellent job contrasting the dealings between Lincoln and factions within his Administration and Davis and factions within his own Cabinet. But, as a rabid political junkie, I've always enjoyed the minute details of politics. One final note, I was actually lucky enough to obtain all fourteen volumes of the 40th Anniversary edition published by Time-Life Books, which includes hundreds of helpful battlefield map and photographs from the era. This particular edition is now out of print, but is worth the effort in trying to obtain all fourteen volumes.
Rating:
Summary: A Delight
Review: Foote once said "facts are just the barebones of truth" and "The Civil War" perfectly illustrates his views. The book reads like a good novel and does not dwell on number. I find it witty and humorous and enormously enjoyable read. This fact is only made possible by the meticulous research that went into the twenty years of writing this book. Shelby Foote is a rare man with a great talent and this book is a product of his devotion.
Rating: 
Summary: took me three months!
Review: i enjoyed this trilogy like the rest of you. however, i would have liked to read more about the 178,000 african-american union soldiers who made up over 15 % of the union whole; and the 38,000 union african-american soldier deaths; and the 600,000 slaves who voted for emancipation with their feet during the war by fleeing their "owners"; and the 29,500 african-americans in the union navy, or 1/4 of the whole, of which 2,800 died; and the 350,000 white southerners who fought in union armies; and the fact that southern armies marching through maryland and pennsylvania kidnapped african-americans off the streets and took them south into slavery (how noble! what honor it must have taken to do such a thing! anyway, it's history, so why hide it?). i'm sure few will like this review, but the fact is that foote doesn't give us the whole story, even though his writing is faboo! it makes me wonder if he thought we'd only read HIS version of the civil war. i totally loved these foote books, but found myself turning to people such as william h. freehling and james mcpherson to get the cold hard facts.
Rating:
Summary: " The King James Version"
Review: Against which all other histories of the Civil War will be measured
Rating:
Summary: A great work, but not perfect...
Review: One of my favorite Englist Lit professors in college once said that there has not yet been been a great novel on the greatest American story, the Civil War. Obviously, Shelby Foote comes close.
If you've gotten to this review, you know how great Foote's trilogy is; but I feel compelled to add yet another comment just to list the flaws. I don't want to waste words on compliments that would just be repititious; so bear with me. I just finished Vol. III and was dissappointed only that it was over. But again, I feel a compulsion to nitpick.
1. Forrest was a bad man, and I think Foote gives him a free pass. The Fort Pillow massacre is documented history; over 60% of the 200+ black soldiers were killed after the fort's walls were breached, and there are eyewitness accounts of men shot when trying to surrender. And of course, Forrest founded the KKK, which was a terrorist organization from the beginning.
2. Wirz (don't know if I spelled that right) was the commander of a prison camp that was the scene of atrocities, starvation and unjust executions. He deserved to be executed. Foote disagrees, and I believe this is because of sloppiness and a loss of objectivity.
3. Foote simply doesn't give enough credit to the 54th Massachusetts (the "Glory" regiment) Lincoln himself, not a man prone to making wild Abolitionist statements, stated that black soldiers played a crucial part in the Union's victory. The 54th paved the way for these soldiers, and Foote's rather cold comment that all this regiment did was "prove that black men could be slaughtered as easily as white's" seemed to be frivolous and also to downplay the symbolic affluence of the 54th.
That said, I have to say that I loved Foote's treatment of Sherman, who is so often simply caricatured as the demonic red-bearded marauder who said "War is Hell" and who burned a bunch of plantations. Even as a kid, I always kind of like Sherman. He's one of the most memorable, and in his own way admirably characters in the War, and it was a relief to see him so portrayed.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars are not enough
Review: Perhaps the greatest history book ever written. Enough said.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing.
Review: This is the most incredible story I have ever read. It took Shelby Foote 20 years to write and me 3 years to read. I was disappointed when I finished it. It was like losing an old friend. I do not think there is a better, more complete, more definitive work on the American Civil War, yet remember this is a novel. Well researched and written this is a trilogy to compare with the very best. Bruce Catton is excellent; Shelby Foote is just much better. Be very careful, one you start you will not want to stop.
Rating:
Summary: A Glorious Account of the Civil War
Review: Shelby Foote was one of the stars of the PBS Famous Series, "The Civil War." His low-keyed and always intelligent comments were the first hints that his work might be better than most. Comparing this trilogy to other approachable histories of the War is like holding up the Hope Diamond with a flawed zirconium. There is no better story of this defining event than this detailed narrative. And the operative word is "story" for he not only reports on the military aspects (which is precisely how the great majority of us relate to the conflict...Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Richmond)- he also brings in the cultural, the political, the personal. These works are extremely detailed yet one is never lost in the details. Instead there is a long arch from the first shot to the inevitable, terrible end. Many have stated that Foote tends to emphasize the South and that is true. Three caveats should be noted, though. One, Foote is a Southerner from a family of Southerners and second, the South with all its eccentricities and larger-than-life characters is simply more interesting. And lastly, the entire war - except for a brief moment - centered in the South. Almost from the first word I was caught in the drama of this expedition that was doomed to failure not only on military grounds but also moral grounds. The author suggests many reason for the war but seems to imply the most appropriate - the fact that for the first time since the Revolutionary War, the South was no longer ascendant within the Federal government and the situation could only get worse. An epic adventure of the highest degree! Have a pen in hand for marking favorite passages.
Rating:
Summary: everything it's said to be--and more
Review: Reading this is simply a wonderful experience--from the first page to the last, from Jefferson Davis's final speech in the US Senate to Lincoln's "last, best hope" speech of December 1862. Foote's narrative flows, sometimes soars, and other times is just downright eloquent. The generals and leaders come to life and jump off the page--all in their own words and deeds, of course, with no embellishment, but with such vigor and color that other works simply do not or cannot convey. Foote takes us into the world of battle, of strategy and tactics: we hear the bullets, encounter the fog of war, watch the generals maneuver and engage. His account of the Virginia-Maryland theater in 1862 is superb as he moves from McClellan's landing on the Peninsula and fighting the Seven Days to Second Bull Run and finally Antietam; the strategies of both sides come across in full force, with a degree of suspense. The Eastern Theater really does seem a chessboard in Foote's narrative. Frequently--maybe too often for some readers--the story is told through the eyes of Confederate commanders, and Foote is certainly sympathetic to the South. Yet I'm prepared to believe him when he says, in his bibliographical note, that any tilt toward the South is attributable to his own heritage and his support for the underdog in a fight. Besides, his concluding section on Lincoln is almost glowing. Foote's The Civil War is a true achievement.
Rating:
Summary: After the first volume, its great - I'm hooked!
Review: I really enjoyed McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" but I found it lacking details in areas I was interested in learning more about, such as the war at sea, in the "trans-Mississippi", and smaller theaters of action. Most of that book focused on politics/society and the "big" fronts: Virginia and Tennessee/Mississippi. I really wanted more, I already know about Gettysburg! I had noticed that McPherson uses Foote's books as source materials and my favorite professor in college said Foote was his favorite author, so I decided to attempt to read this massive three-volume work. I've only finished book one, but I've found it to be totally enjoyable! Sure the book mainly focuses on the battles, and there is so much more to a war than the battles, but the battles are very interesting to me. Sure the book favors the South - though not as much as "Battle Cry" favors the North, at least as far as I've read. Since I find the Confederacy to be more interesting from a dramatic stand point, I don't mind at all. Sure, in real terms, I'm glad the Union won the war(even though as a libratarian, I don't really care for Lincoln's political policies), but I like to root for the underdog, even when reading history. I'm glad I read "Battle Cry of Freedom" first, because Foote puts so much information into the book that it can get confusing at times keeping up with things. It was useful to already have a more indepth understanding of events beyond what I learned in high school and college. There are A LOT of details to keep straight in this book!
|
