Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
ISBN 978-0195038637 | | |
Preceded by | What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 | |
---|---|---|
Followed by | The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865–1896 |
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is a 1988 book on the American Civil War, written by James M. McPherson. It is the sixth volume of the Oxford History of the United States series. An abridged, illustrated version was published in 2003.[1] The book won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for History.[2]
Content
Battle Cry of Freedom is a narrative history[3] of two decades of the history of the United States from the outbreak of the Mexican–American War to the Civil War's ending at Appomattox. Thus, it examined the Civil War era, not just the war, as it combined the social, military and political events of the period within a single narrative framework. Historian Hugh Brogan, reviewing the book, commends McPherson for initially describing "the republic at midcentury" as "a divided society, certainly, and a violent one, but not one in which so appalling a phenomenon as civil war is likely. So it must have seemed to most Americans at the time. Slowly, slowly the remote possibility became horrible actuality; and Mr. McPherson sees to it that it steals up on his readers in the same way."[4]
A central concern of this work is the multiple interpretations of
Reception
Battle Cry of Freedom was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 16 weeks on The New York Times hardcover bestseller list with an additional 12 weeks on the paperback list.[5] Historian Mark E. Neely Jr. praised the book's wide-ranging coverage, writing that in the book McPherson "seems equally interested in all aspects of the Civil War" including but not limited to diplomacy, inflation, legislation, medicine, military campaigns, and prisoner-of-war exchanges.[6] Dudley T. Cornish cited the lack of naval history as the book's "only discernable flaw" and further commented by saying "the book's strongest connecting themes are the comprehensive discussions of diplomatic, economic, industrial, political, and social aspects of the nation's travail."[7] Michael P. Johnson regarded the book as an overarching synthesis of evidence that refutes Walt Whitman's claim that the war should primarily be understood from the perspective of the sufferers of battle. Johnson asserts that the book classifies the Civil War as revolving primarily around the politics of slavery, and he states that its title "invites the conceptual miscalculation: Victory = Freedom", this characterization being Johnson's main critique. Still, he praises it for being "as a narrative of wartime maneuvers-both political and military-[...] unsurpassed".[8]
Editions
- ISBN 978-0-19-503863-7.
- ISBN 0-19-515-901-2.
See also
- For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War
- The Civil War: A Narrative
- Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant
- Bibliography of the American Civil War
References
- ^ NR Staff (November 12, 2003). "A New Battle Cry". National Review. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
- ^ Neely (1990, p. 166).
- ^ a b Hugh Brogan (December 6, 1998). "The Bloodiest of Wars: Review of Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson". New York Times.
- ^ a b Wortman, Marc (June 18, 2013). "25 Years of Battle Cry of Freedom: An Interview with James M. McPherson". The Daily Beast.
- ^ Neely (1990, p. 167).
- ^ Cornish (1989, p. 1334).
- ^ Johnson (1989, pp. 414–415).
- ^ Durden (1989, pp. 460–461).
- ^ Hyman (1990, p. 262).
Sources
- Cornish, Dudley T. (1989). "Review of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era". The Journal of American History. 75 (4): 1333–1334. JSTOR 1908702.
- JSTOR 2208406.
- JSTOR 2163143.
- Johnson, Michael P. (1989). "Battle Cry of Freedom?". Reviews in American History. 17 (2): 214–218. JSTOR 2702921.
- JSTOR 40582121.
External links
Quotations related to James M. McPherson at Wikiquote
- Discussion with McPherson on Battle Cry of Freedom, July 10, 2000, C-SPAN
- Presentation by McPherson on the illustrated version of Battle Cry of Freedom, November 3, 2003, C-SPAN