Rating: 
Summary: A classic on par with PKD's Man in the High Castle
Review: A classic novel from the true Golden Age of science fiction. Moore crafts an alternate history on par with any ever written. This book is on the level of any written during the 1950's and ranks among the works of Bester, Bradbury, and Matheson. Imagine a novel with the prose of Bester and the vision of Dick. A must read for any fan of alternative fiction. Forget Turtledove. This is THE alternate "what if the South won" book!
Rating:
Summary: A classic on par with PKD's Man in the High Castle
Review: A classic novel from the true Golden Age of science fiction. Moore crafts an alternate history on par with any ever written. This book is on the level of any written during the 1950's and ranks among the works of Bester, Bradbury, and Matheson. Imagine a novel with the prose of Bester and the vision of Dick. A must read for any fan of alternative fiction. Forget Turtledove. This is THE alternate "what if the South won" book!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely worth finding
Review: Bring the Jubilee was always a book that I wanted to read but could never find. I looked for it haphazardly until the early 1990's when I found it in the University of Iowa Library (two copies, for anyone who's interested). I read it, fully expecting to be disappointed because twenty years of anticipation can lead to unreal expections. I was surprised--it is a marvellous book, one of the true SF gems from the 50's, and it is disappointing that it is still out of print.
Rating: 
Summary: Searching For A Better Alternative
Review: Ever since the American Civil War ended in victory for the South, the Northern states have been a poor, backward region, largely populated by impecunious yokels. Hodge Backmaker is a country boy with less practical skills than his fellows; someone more at home with books than the outdoor, workaday environment.In "Bring the Jubilee" Backmaker recounts his life, describing his move from Wappinger Falls to a squalid New York, where he works in a book shop for a few years. After some uncomfortable dealings with an underground army he then becomes involved with the intellectual thinktank at Haggershaven, where his fascination for history eventually leads to academic prestige. Ward Moore has written an interesting scenario here. Along with the rewrite of American history, passing references are made to men like Carl Jung and Picasso, their destinies skewed by the differences that make alternate worlds possible. While taking part in the first experiments in time travel, Hodge Backmaker will unwittingly change their lives when he makes a field trip to Gettysburg in 1863... There's no doubt that alternate histories are a fascinating subject for writers to tackle. So many of them have fun changing history, usually making our world look like the better one. Maybe it helps us forget the reality of our own problems; taking solace in the fact that there's always someone worse off than ourselves. A number of people have compared "Bring the Jubilee" with "Pavane", the praise for both books being fairly equal. It's hard to say which is better, since they deal with two different periods of history. Like most novels, they both have their share of romance, which almost seems a requirement for the protagonist. Nevertheless, they both come highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Forget the Jubilee--Bring the Editor
Review: I am amused by the other reviewers' generous critiques of this book. While it does have an interesting premise--that an alternate past can be accidentally reshaped into the actual one--the execution is merely adequate. First, the protagonist spends much too much time in his own philosophical world, and does not offer nearly enough description of what his alternate world looks like. So much of this book is in its characters' heads. Second, he encounters numerous eccentric characters who are nothing more than thinly veiled embodiments of various philosophies. One character's entire being, for example, is based upon the concept of fatalism. Every utterance is advocacy for his fatalistic beliefs--how tiresome! Third, if the North had lost the Civil War, it is very unlikely it would have been as backward as Moore portrays it. No telephones by the 1950s? No airplanes? No skyscrapers in NYC? Preposterous. Fourth, Moore annoyingly omitted apostrophes throughout the book. I uncovered no justification in his writing wasn't as wasnt, couldn't as couldnt, and haven't as havent. This proved an ongoing distraction, without purpose, that an editor could have easily rectified. The last 20 pages are the best of the book. But I do not strongly recommend enduring the first 200 pages to get this modest payoff at the end.
Rating:
Summary: meanders, but the ending makes up for it.
Review: Most of the book had a certain charm, but made me say "Did he forget to have things happen in this book?" However women, & catholics were dealt with better then in most sf of its day & racial issues were dealt with more directly then usual. The end made up for the pointless meandering of the beginning & I think the meandering made you appreciate the end more.
Rating: 
Summary: Why a "masterwork"?
Review: Occasionally one comes upon a book that has received fulsome praise from literary giants; then one reads the book and wonders what all the hype was about. Bring The Jubilee is that type of book. The writing style is distracting, the proposed alternative world (following a Confederate victory in the Civil War) strains the willingness to suspend disbelief, and the characters are repugnant and unlikable. The main character, Hodge Backmaker, is solely interested in his own pleasure and happiness, and is utterly devoid of morality, compassion, and any other positive personality trait. That the world Mr. Moore creates for Backmaker fits the character perfectly does nothing to endear him to the reader. At first I found myself longing for the book to finish, then I found myself hoping that Backmaker would come to some suitable bad end. Bring The Jubilee is definitely not a book I would recommend to anyone. There are any number of alternative history books out there that explore the results of a Confederate victory; any one of them would be a better choice than this one.
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: The author's vision of what the world might have been like if the South had won the war is fascinating. The characters are believable and the last part of the book is impossible to put down. This book was hard to find but the effort was worth it. Readers who like this book might also like Fatherland, which takes place in Germany in 1964 in a world in which the Nazis won WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not "a classic"
Review: The final few pages are the best. They show the horror of a man who is, shall we say, "stuck" where he does not belong, and cannot ever get back to where it should be. The first 200 pages are pretty good, if uneven. At first I didn't like the book, but grew progressively more interested. Some things were annoying throughout the novel, such as the lack of apostrophes ("dint") or using "alternative history" terms like "Southron" instead of "Southern." Ward plays with a bit of philosophy and religion, not always successfully. The bookstore owner who is a complete
fatalist requires a suspension of disbelief that I didn't find
possible. The action, however, was more interesting than the intellectual pretensions. The silent fight between the Confederates and the members of the Grand Army, the bandits' attack on the "stagecoach," these scenes worked out very well. The book is worth reading, but I didn't find it a "classic" science-fiction novel in the same league as, say, Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." It's a good alternate-history time-travel story, but not a great one,
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not "a classic"
Review: The final few pages are the best. They show the horror of a man who is, shall we say, "stuck" where he does not belong, and cannot ever get back to where it should be. The first 200 pages are pretty good, if uneven. At first I didn't like the book, but grew progressively more interested. Some things were annoying throughout the novel, such as the lack of apostrophes ("dint") or using "alternative history" terms like "Southron" instead of "Southern." Ward plays with a bit of philosophy and religion, not always successfully. The bookstore owner who is a complete
fatalist requires a suspension of disbelief that I didn't find
possible. The action, however, was more interesting than the intellectual pretensions. The silent fight between the Confederates and the members of the Grand Army, the bandits' attack on the "stagecoach," these scenes worked out very well. The book is worth reading, but I didn't find it a "classic" science-fiction novel in the same league as, say, Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." It's a good alternate-history time-travel story, but not a great one,
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