Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
By the vastly amusing author of Don't Know Much About History and Don't Know Much About Geography, this fresh look at America's greatest conflict will dispel all those misconceptions you acquired by watching "Gone With the Wind". Davis has a genius for bringing history to life, sorting out the players, the politics and the key events -- Harpers Ferry, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Emancipation, Reconstruction -- in a way that will enlighten even the most dedicated back-of-the-class napper. A brilliant crash course, this book vividly brings to life the people -- from Dred Scott to Abraham Lincoln -- and the everyday details that make up History with a capital H.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Historian Kenneth C. Davis brings his remarkable ability for making the past vital and entertaining to this in-depth study of the United States' bloodiest conflict. Not content to rehash the one-dimensional accounts that traditional history textbooks have foisted upon students, Davis reexamines with a fresh, critical eye the situations leading up to and the key events that shaped the Civil War. He begins by reaching back to the earliest days of American history to understand the political, economic, and social conditions that allowed a nation founded upon the notion that "all men are created equal" to enslave and degrade 12 million human souls. In his detailed account of the war's battles and political power struggles, he introduces us to the personalities--from Abraham Lincoln, General Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglas to common soldiers and war widows--whose vision, compromises, determination, and powerlessness together made history. Davis also brings to light little-known facts and episodes that for generations were ignored or swept under the rug of the American conscience--including the role of women in the war effort and the massacre of blacks at the hands of Union civilians. All Americans would do well to take a new look at this period of history that "shaped the country's political landscape like the great glaciers had once carved America" because, as Davis explains, its effects linger today. "The Civil War," he says, "remains at the core of our greatest national problem: the great racial divide that grew from slavery." Few programs speak with such intelligence and eloquence about how far the United States has come in terms of what the war taught--and how far it still has to go. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --Uma Kukathas
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
Don't Know Much About the Civil War : Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...(Paperback))
Don't Know Much About the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...(Paperback)),Kenneth C. Davis,Harper Paperbacks,0380719088,Civil War, 1861-1865,History,History - Military / War,History: American,Military - General,Reference,Slavery,United States,United States - Civil War,American history: c 1800 to c 1900,Civil war,History / General,USA
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