The Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Box Set

Foote is a novelist first, and the skill of his narration bears this out. Although the reader knows (or should know) what is about to take place (after all, this is the most written about war in literature), the author presents the events as a first rate novelist presents his plot twists and turns - with such subtlety that the reader is somewhat surprised when he comes face to face with such events as the assassination of Lincoln. And one has to remind oneself that the presidents, politicians, generals, officers and men of both sides are not literary creations but real men; they come alive to the reader as the best constructed fictional character comes alive to the novel reader. Being born and raised in Louisiana, I came to the book with some built-in biases, particularly against some of the Union generals like Sherman and Sheridan while harboring almost deistic sentiments toward Lee, Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson. Foote shatters these biases. By using primary evidence such as personal letters, public speeches and contemporary observations these men shed their auras and become merely flesh and blood doing what they had to do given the exigencies of the war. I gained a begrudging respect for Sherman who always knew what war was about and knew best how to go about winning one. I was shown another side of Stonewall as a cruel, lemon sucking, self-appointed messenger of God who could sincerely give prayerful thanks for allowing him to slaughter the enemy. Sheridan I still do not like. Also gratifying was the attention that Foote gave to the Red River campaign and the exploits of General Richard Taylor, a part of the war that is often given scant attention or ignored all together by other historians.That it took Foote "five times longer to write the war than the participants took to fight it" only matures his work, as age matures a first rate single malt Scotch whisky. During the time of Foote's labor, several historical events occurred that reflected the actions of the period of which he was writing, some one hundred years earlier: the assassination of a president; the beginning and end of another war; a continuation of the civil rights struggle so intimately associated with the Civil War and the assassination of its leader; and a period of uncertainty as manifested by Watergate. These re-occurrences surely had its impact on Foote (he makes parenthetical references to these contemporary events throughout the book) and tempered his efforts to write the definitive book on a definitive period of American history.There has been much comment regarding Foote's seeming disregard for the principles of academic writing; i.e., the lack of footnotes or other forms of citation, and the lack of a comprehensive bibliography. He is compared unfavorably to other Civil War historians who lavish much time on such niceties with the result that Foote's extensive labor has been somewhat castigated. Come now! Are narrative histories by Herodotus, Livy, Thucydides and even Homer any less valuable because the emphasis is on narration rather than on a slavish adherence to the rules of academia? Foote, in his bibliographical notes, remarks in summation, "Farwel my book and my devocion', my rock and my companion through two decades," and it was with the same mixed feelings of reluctance and relief that I turned the last of almost three thousand pages of these three volumes, my own companion for countless mornings and evenings.

I bought this for my father, who loves reading about the Civil War using these things called books. Not sure what to make of it because you have to put this extra effort of turning pages and straining your eyes. Anyways, the old man gave these books a 2 thumbs up and recommends it as a good read.

I have yet to finish reading this marathon work, but I can honestly say that it is the greatest work of historical literature that I have yet read.Firstly, the author shows an encyclopaedic grasp of the facts of history together with an intuitive and almost uncanny sense of their significance in relation to the unfolding story.Secondly, his literary skills give even his vast factual knowledge a run for their money. This is no mere recitative of dry facts, but a perfectly paced and dramatically structured narrative, in which different literary genres such as biography and story-telling are seamlessly interwoven.Thirdly, he has a rare gift for being judgmental without being partisan. He is not afraid to find good and bad on either side of the conflict; in fact he is not even afraid to find a cocktail of good and bad in individuals whom history slotsentirely into one moral category or the other.Fourthly (and this is more subjective), this is so enjoyable as a read. The author's own exuberant fascination with the period, and the intensity of his admiration or scorn for the various personages involved on either side of the conflict, are communicated to the reader.The three volumes of this `magnum opus' are available separately, but this three-volume boxed edition is the way to own it. I don't know if the three books were published sequentially or simultaneously, but in a very real sense we are talking about a single coherent work in three volumes.If you know nothing at all about the Civil War, you could find this sheer size of this work a bit daunting; more seriously, you could lose the bigger picture in the sheer wealth of fascinating detail. In that case, James McPherson's extraordinarily brilliant overview ("The Battle Cry of Freedom") could be a better place to start. However, if you want something really substantial to keep you engrossed on that coast-to-coast wagon-train journey, this is unreservedly recommended for beginner or Civil War enthusiast alike.