Collection
Publication
Doubleday and Company (1961), Edition: 1st, 565 pages
Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award A thrilling, page-turning piece of writing that describes the forces conspiring to tear apart the United States--with the disintegrating political processes and rising tempers finally erupting at Bull Run. ..".a major work by a major writer, a superb re-creation of the twelve crucial months that opened the Civil War."--The New York Times.
User reviews
LibraryThing member worldsedge
This worked very well as a book on cassette, even if it ran to 20 hours. Quite an incisive overview of the events leading up to the Civil War, up to first Bull Run. Perhaps a bit too much time spent relating to Fort Sumter, but otherwise Catton hit all the high points.
LibraryThing member dhughes
The first book in the series covers the events of the election of 1860 and the political events of each of the election canidates. The author approaches many events in those times by providing the perspectives for several of the participants. This impresses me since this would have taken a huge
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amount of research. The detail requires close attention or you can quickly get lost in it. This is the first of the 3 book series and I immediately started on the second book. Show Less
LibraryThing member timbrennan
An awesome classic. For Civil War buffs, this volume and the other 2 are MUST reads. If you read nothing else about the War Between The States, read this trilogy.
LibraryThing member StormRaven
This is the first volume in Bruce Catton's famous history of the U.S. Civil War. Given that I studied Civil War history as an undergraduate (under Michael F. Holt, author of The Political Crisis of the 1850s, also in my library), I suppose it is kind of surprising that I never read this series
In the first volume, Catton presents a clearly written history of the events between the 1860 Democratic Party Convention in Charleston, South Carolina to the 1861 Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia. While there isn't anything in the account that I didn't know already, Catton links the events together, showing how one foolish idea after another, one miscalculation after another, and one delusion after another all wove together to drive the country away from the delicate political compromises of the 1840s and 1850s to extremism, and finally war.
In this volume, Catton clearly shows how unready both sides were for the coming conflict, and how both gravely miscalculated the other's intentions. From the bitter, four way presidential campaign in which the only national candidate had no chance of victory, to the bizarre (and ultimately fateful) siege of Fort Sumter, to the federal government's actions in Missouri to drive out the government of a State that had not seceded, to the clash of rank amateurs that was almost as costly to the victorious Confederates as to the routed Federals many of the events detailed have an almost farcical tone to them, which serves to underscore the naïveté, the confusion, and the chaos that every person in the U.S. faced during this year.
In contrast to many histories that make the animosities between the factions seem inevitable, and seem like everyone participating knew hostilities were inevitable, Catton, in this volume, shows how men who became implacable adversaries beginning in 1861, grasped to the last at straws that offered any fleeting hope of peace, and the forces (mostly driven by the two sides very incompatible ideas about exactly what they would be negotiating) that made such peace impossible.
Catton captures this, the last time that true amateurs in politics and warfare would grace the stage, and expertly details the blunders they made which resulted in what is still arguably the most pivotal conflict in U.S. history.
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until now. I can only say that I wish I had read it sooner.In the first volume, Catton presents a clearly written history of the events between the 1860 Democratic Party Convention in Charleston, South Carolina to the 1861 Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia. While there isn't anything in the account that I didn't know already, Catton links the events together, showing how one foolish idea after another, one miscalculation after another, and one delusion after another all wove together to drive the country away from the delicate political compromises of the 1840s and 1850s to extremism, and finally war.
In this volume, Catton clearly shows how unready both sides were for the coming conflict, and how both gravely miscalculated the other's intentions. From the bitter, four way presidential campaign in which the only national candidate had no chance of victory, to the bizarre (and ultimately fateful) siege of Fort Sumter, to the federal government's actions in Missouri to drive out the government of a State that had not seceded, to the clash of rank amateurs that was almost as costly to the victorious Confederates as to the routed Federals many of the events detailed have an almost farcical tone to them, which serves to underscore the naïveté, the confusion, and the chaos that every person in the U.S. faced during this year.
In contrast to many histories that make the animosities between the factions seem inevitable, and seem like everyone participating knew hostilities were inevitable, Catton, in this volume, shows how men who became implacable adversaries beginning in 1861, grasped to the last at straws that offered any fleeting hope of peace, and the forces (mostly driven by the two sides very incompatible ideas about exactly what they would be negotiating) that made such peace impossible.
Catton captures this, the last time that true amateurs in politics and warfare would grace the stage, and expertly details the blunders they made which resulted in what is still arguably the most pivotal conflict in U.S. history.
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LibraryThing member LeahsChoice
Surely one of the best Civil War writers to come down the pike.
LibraryThing member Schneider
The muse was whispering in his ear from first keystroke.
Mr. Catton captured and penned a great piece of history with this first volume of his American Civil War Trilogy. Intelligent without being eruditical, lengthy without being overwhelming, written with enough balance to avoid be
As you can tell, I enjoyed this book. It is a nice overall history of the people, places, and events that led up to the outbreak of war. Mr. Catton's writing is vivid enough to bring the reader to each location, intimate enough for the reader to get to know each of the major players he wrote about. Clear enough to see through the fog of war that can sometimes disrupt the best writers’ efforts to describe the skirmishes and battles.
He seems to focus most of the book in the east, but does not, by any stretch of the imagination, avoid the activity and importance of the western theater and its participants. That is really the only negative I have with the job Mr. Catton has done.
This is a title that I would highly recommend any student of the American Civil War read. It demonstrates why Mr. Catton deserved all of the credit he received. Inspiration was definitely visiting him while writing this volume and it shows.
Mr. Catton captured and penned a great piece of history with this first volume of his American Civil War Trilogy. Intelligent without being eruditical, lengthy without being overwhelming, written with enough balance to avoid be
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hagiographical.As you can tell, I enjoyed this book. It is a nice overall history of the people, places, and events that led up to the outbreak of war. Mr. Catton's writing is vivid enough to bring the reader to each location, intimate enough for the reader to get to know each of the major players he wrote about. Clear enough to see through the fog of war that can sometimes disrupt the best writers’ efforts to describe the skirmishes and battles.
He seems to focus most of the book in the east, but does not, by any stretch of the imagination, avoid the activity and importance of the western theater and its participants. That is really the only negative I have with the job Mr. Catton has done.
This is a title that I would highly recommend any student of the American Civil War read. It demonstrates why Mr. Catton deserved all of the credit he received. Inspiration was definitely visiting him while writing this volume and it shows.
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LibraryThing member Chris469
I read this 1961 classic now (in 2011) on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The book covers about one year of activity: from the Democratic Party Convention of 1860 in Charleston through the First Bull Run campaign of July, 1861. An excellent writer, Catton lays out the
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political goings-on both North and South as if he had been a reporter alive on the scene at the time. The book has held up well even if it is 50 years old. The only time it seems somewhat dated is in a brief discussion he has about African-Americans where he describes them (in the fashion of a 1950s American white liberal) as gentle, peaceful, childlike folk who didn’t want to cause any trouble. Incidentally, to those who might think otherwise, the evidence in this book strongly supports the notion that the Civil War really WAS about slavery, or at least about the rights of slave-owners and the right to extend slavery into new territories and states. (Among other things, when South Carolina seceded from the Union it sent out a proclamation to its fellow “slave-holding states” inviting them to also leave the Union.) The book reminds one of how long the Fort Sumter Crisis gripped the nation (the stand-off went on for months) and the Fort’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, became that era’s version of a “media hero”, a celebrity whose name was honored in banquet toasts in the North and whose popularity the Lincoln Administration later deployed on recruitment drives to enlist volunteer troops. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a detailed account of the months leading up to the start of the war and the first 90 days or so of that war. Show Less
LibraryThing member pjsullivan
This one is about the complex legal issues that led to the Civil War and to the most momentous decision in U. S. history: how should President Lincoln respond to the secessions and the seizures of federal property in the South? It raises many interesting questions, not the least of which is, did he
Was secession a Constitutional right, as the Confererates claimed? If not, why did Lincoln recognize West Virginia’s right to secede from Virginia? Was this a hypocritical double standard? Private property was protected by the Constitution; did that include private property in slaves? Lincoln thought it did. Was he justified in suspending habeas corpus in Maryland? What is a nation? Is it a compact among sovereign states? Or is it a sovereignty over constituent states? When federals violated the Fugitive Slave Law, did that constitute recognition that the South was an independent country?
It was a complicated war, by the legal standards of the time. This book is about more than battles and military strategy—the fighting does not even start until page 452 of my edition.
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make the right decision? Was the bloodbath worth it? If Lincoln had known the consequences, would he have made the same decision? If he had let the South go, would it have brought peace? How long would slavery have continued? Was secession a Constitutional right, as the Confererates claimed? If not, why did Lincoln recognize West Virginia’s right to secede from Virginia? Was this a hypocritical double standard? Private property was protected by the Constitution; did that include private property in slaves? Lincoln thought it did. Was he justified in suspending habeas corpus in Maryland? What is a nation? Is it a compact among sovereign states? Or is it a sovereignty over constituent states? When federals violated the Fugitive Slave Law, did that constitute recognition that the South was an independent country?
It was a complicated war, by the legal standards of the time. This book is about more than battles and military strategy—the fighting does not even start until page 452 of my edition.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
Well, I planned to read all the volumes of the Centennial history of the Civil War, but this opening volume spent so much time on what I considered non-important trivia that I did not go on to the next volume
LibraryThing member kencf0618
Prelude to patriotic gore (to use Edmund Wilson's phrasing). Magisterial, tight read. Virtually any given paragraph can unpacked into volumes, really. AND IT'S NOT OVER.
Subjects
Awards
Ohioana Book Award (Winner — Nonfiction — 1962)
Society of Midland Authors Award (Winner — 1962)
Language
Original publication date
1961-10
Physical description
565 p.; 9.3 inches
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