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: A great way to pass the time on those long drives.....
Review: My husband and I recently returned from our honeymoon touring Civil War Battlefields. This tape provided us with 6 hours of listening pleasure. Although we are well versed in all aspects of the Civil War, this was still an enjoyable way to spend our day in the car. Questions are asked, then answers provided in detail by the reader. A bit patronizing at times (Are we really that lost, to have to be asked "Who was Abraham Lincoln?") but still wonderful information nonetheless about pre-war conflicts and the events leading up to our nations greatest struggle. The language and stories are clear and presented in a way that all ages should benefit. If you are going to listen to an audiobook, why not make it a learning experience as well?

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Summary: don't know much.. and he wants to keep it that way
Review: politically correct revisionist pap...i made it thru the first hour of the tape then pitched it. i have read several treatments of this sad event; this is the only one i pitched out..literally...

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Summary: A solid, fairly complete Civil War book
Review: Simply put: this book is not for Civil War buffs. Most have already read through Shelby Foote's Civil War series and, put simply - there is nothing new in here. Still, Kenneth Davis' book has some great chapters on America before the war (and it shows how slavery was always a big deal in America), and it has a lot of great quotes sprinkled throughout the book. The timelines are also pretty detailed and provide some nice tidbits (like census counts). It tends to focus on the people, rather than the events, more, and the descriptions of everybody involved can get a bit boring. Still, it's a fine book for anyone who has a passing interest in the ACW (as it is pretty easy to read and understand), but not for those who are ACW buffs.

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Summary: true title!
Review: the author is right! he doesn't know much about the civil war. there is nothing in this book that hasn't been shoved down southerners throats for the past 135 years. i am truly shocked that this person thinks that he's divulging information that no one else has been privy to. this book was a total waste of money.

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Summary: Informative for both Civil War experts and novices
Review: The author tends to be opinionated but, at least he does not allow that to get in the way of accurately setting forth most of the key information necessary to be literate in the tragic conflict that divided our nation. Davis' approach is a question and answer format and, although I am well read on the Civil War, I found it to be informative. If you are someone who needs an entry level book on the Civil War before delving into Shelby Foote, McPherson, etc., this book will do nicely. If you plan to go no further than this book, it will help you to be at least minimally conversant in a subject all Americans should know about.

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Summary: Good book for those that don't know much about the war.
Review: The book is a good compliation of issues and events leading up to the Civil War, and during and after. However, if you are a Civil War buff or are a student of History, or a professional historian you might find the book dull, because you probably already know it. I would reccomend this book to high school students, college freshman or anyone who feels their knowledge of U.S. History lacking, (which unfortunatley is common in our society.) I found my self skimming alot, already knowing the information. The author gives a nice touch of primary source material by quoting some appropriate words from someone from the era a chapter is discussing. The book is also nicely organized into questions that he answers, like "What does the Constitution say about Slavery?" I found some of his conclusions strained however, for example "if there had been no Lousiana Purchase there might not have been a Civil War." It's that kind of strained conclusions and sloppy logic that gives History a bad name in our society. Anyways, good book, informative, and well done.

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Summary: A good overview of the Civil War, especially for neophites
Review: This 4-cassette audio adaptation contains roughly 1/3 of the text of the book version. The essential events are covered, providing a good overview of the Civil War. For people unfamiliar with this period of history it's a very good introduction, and for those more familiar with it it's a good refresher and occasionally even provides some interesting myth-busters. This audio book is by no means a comprehensive examination of the conflict, and at times it's simplifications of cause-and-effects seem a bit too pat, but it's far more accessible than most long, dry tomes about history.

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Summary: An abject, unmitigated disaster.
Review: This book is so full of egregious factual blunders (e.g., "Arkansas [was] a slaveholding state that remained in the Union") as to be totally worthless. It is also replete with simplistic and just plain wrong interpretations. The only positive thing to be said about this bomb is that the title is a true reflection of the author's level of knowledge of the subject. One star it too many, but there was no lower number for me to choose.

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Summary: The Title Describes the Author Perfectly
Review: This book treats a fascinating time in American history like a day at an amusement park. The research must have been shoddy or rushed.The conclusions reached by Mr. Davis seem to be pre conceived. Slavery was not the beginning, ending, and whole story of the American Civil War. After Gettysberg, the reason president Lincoln was particularly upset with General Meade is because he referred to the victory as being on our soil. This implied that the general did not hold the conviction of one country. Do not take the author of this book's point of view as an authority. Read from the original works of General Grant, Sherman, and Longstreet. Draw your own conclusions. Shelby Foote has written an in depth non-bias narrative of this war.This book covers too much ground and has a sickening northern slant. The North won the war but the south was not the evil country Mr. Davis seems to have concluded they were. The title of this book should be The Civil War by someone who does not know much about the civil war.

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Summary: Entertaining and Informative
Review: This book was an easy and captivating read. However, I felt that the author used a bit too much of his energy trying to convince the reader that slavery was wrong. WHO is he trying to convince? People who think that slavery is a good idea certainly do not have the mental capacity to read comics, let alone a book, so I felt that my intelligence was a bit slighted. It WAS a bit interesting to see how many synonyms for HORRIBLE that he could come up with. Overall, I did learn many things that I had never known, especially about slavery and pre-war America, so I would recommend this book. I find that there are many things that I didn't learn in school, and I suspect it's the same for alot of people, so Mr. Davis's books are a great (and welcome) idea! I just hope that people read more than this one book (ANY one book) before they decide that they DO know something about the Civil War.