Don't Know Much About the Civil War : Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned

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Summary: Don't know much about the Civil War
Review: I found the book to be an easy read, using a style of short, detailed accounts of events and people. There are also copies of documents that are refered to in history, such as the lost orders of Gen. Lee which were recovered by a Union soldier. This book is a valuable addition to anyy reenactor or anyone interested in the facts that often get obscued by historians.

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Summary: An excellent overview of the Civil War
Review: I have been studying and reading about the Civil War for over 40 years, and yet I learned much from reading this book. Usually I shy away from reading overviews of the war as I find them repetitive. Instead I now read the diaries, journals and letters of the active participants. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the author does an excellent job of explaining the politics and causes of the war without talking down to you with cutsy language as the "... for Dummies" series does. This is the text that should be used in our schools as an introduction to the most significant event in our history. The material is easy to read for the person new to the War and presented in such a manner that most readers probably will want to know more and begin to read other works on the Civil War. I now give this book as a gift to my friends and relatives.

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Summary: Sounds like it was written by Jesse Jackson!
Review: I hoped this book (actually the audio version) would be a better way to learn more about the civil war than reading a boring text book, but I was wrong. It was basically a history of...[African Americans] in America. The actual civil war portion of the book was just an afterthought. Pass on this one if you're actually interested in military history or even just the civil war itself. If you want the history of the slave trade, this if for you.

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Summary: Excellent
Review: I love American History, especially the events leading up to and resulting in the Civil War, but after about 10 years of being out of school I needed a refresher. This was just what the doctor ordered. The book was presented in an easy to read fashion that kept me wanting to turn the page and see what happened next. In addition to the cold hard facts there are tid-bits of trivia which I enjoyed. The recap of events at the end of each chapter was nice as well. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Davis' Don't Know Much series of books.

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Summary: This is a wonderful book. I couldn't stop reading.
Review: I love the Civil War and this book has been wonderful. I've learned a lot. But not only did I learn, the book intrigued me so much that I couldn't put it down.

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Summary: The Civil War is with us still!
Review: I set out to explode many of the still widely held myths and misconceptions about the the Civil War --First of all, Margaret Mitchell shouldn't be teaching America about slavery and the Civil War! Too many people think that this period was romantic and glorious. Or that it was all about generals and battles. This book attempts to put a human face on the event that still shapes our country and politics by looking at the people who lived through the war --the boys who fought, the wives who nursed, the slaves who ran away-- not just the famous and important. I think it is my most important book yet

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Summary: I bought all 4 of Davis' books: I adore them all!
Review: I started reading "...Civil War" the day I finished reading his "...U.S. History". I can't say enough good things about his 4 "Don't Know Much..." books. I slept through all my history classes in high school and was so turned off by history that I never took a course in college on history. Amazingly, Davis' 4 books utterly fascinate me, rivet me, hold my attention at all times. My advise is to hold a file card over the line in the book you are reading. That way it is sort of like an animation as the file card is moved down each page keeping the eye in a disciplined reading pattern. Yay Davis! I hope he writes many more books.

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Summary: just a history book
Review: I thought I would learn more secrets from this book but I was a little disappointed.
If you are looking for exotic opinions or comments about how and why things went the way it was you do not find much in this book. Dispersed into book are some memories from people involved at every walks of life which makes book a little more interesting than others. In every chapter there is a chronology of events that took place and laws that congress passed. Still looking for a better book that provides commentary rather than chronology of events.

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Summary: Not!...
Review: I'm going to sell the thing. The historical value is some good but he presents it in a condesending way (as another reviewer noticed). It basically turned me off.. so I turned it off!

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Summary: The way the Civil War should have been taught in high school
Review: I'm not a Civil War History maven. I read this book because I thought that my knowledge of the Civil War was superficial at best, and I needed a context for the "microhistories" of individual battles or specific historical characters. Davis does an admirable job of putting the War into its proper perspective, tracing causes back to the settlement of the colonies, and repercussions up to the present. Frequent use of quotes from contemporary speeches, diaries, and writings give both sides of the struggle an eloquence and sense of national tragedy that I had not experienced before. Don't expect a detailed tactical account of individual battles, though Davis did manage to weave in enough of the military minutia to satisfy me. As in his "Don't Know Much About History" he surfaces fantastic facts and coincidences that I love, like the fact that Lincoln's son was present at the assasination of both Garfield and McKinley. Wonder what modern conspiracy theorist would have made of that