The American Civil War: 365 Days [Hardcover]

Margaret E. Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Presented in 12 thematic sections, this visual history of America's epochal conflict features more than 500 items drawn from the unparalleled collections of the Library of Congress, including Mathew Brady's iconic photographs; period drawings, lithographs, and woodcuts; important manuscripts like the Gettysburg Address; political and theatrical posters; and ephemera like the contents of Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated. A running timeline notes an important-or intriguing lesser-known-event for each calendar day, while excerpts from diaries, letters, speeches, postwar memoirs, and other first-person accounts lend immediacy to the informative text. A vivid mix of words and images, The American Civil War: 365 Days captures the drama, the horror, the epic sweep, and the human toll of this unparalleled American clash at arms like no other book before it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Featuring more than 500 images from the collections of the Library of Congress, this book offers a keen overview of the Civil War. Wagner's succinct accounts of prominent figures and events paint a rich portrait of public sentiment in the pre-and-post-war years, but it is the sheer number of photographs, lithographs, battlefield drawings, political cartoons, posters, maps and letters that distinguishes this book. From the realignment of roles among African-Americans, women and civilians to the contents of Lincoln's pockets upon his death, this book affords many unique glimpses of the bloodiest war in American history.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School This illustrated history is a best buy. The black-and-white photographs and color reproductions are of excellent quality and the narrative is clear as well. The book is organized topically rather than chronologically, which takes getting used to. The topics include: Irrepressible Conflict (the causes of the war), Gathering Momentum (opening battles), War in the East (Bull Run to Appomattox), Wartime Politics (North, South, and foreign), War on the Water, Fighting for Freedom (the story of African Americans), Turning Points, and so on. Daily occurrences that run consecutively on each page are never cued to the illustrations on those pages, and the events jump from year to year within the main topics. The pages are not numbered. The chapter titles are the months of the year, but chapter events are never related to the month of the chapter title. The index, however, is cued to the date e.g., Dred Scott is mentioned in the index on 1/12, 1/13, and 1/15, meaning readers will find him mentioned on pages January 12, January 13, and January 15. Idiosyncrasies aside, this is a uniquely high-quality visual history. Alan Gropman, National Defense University, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 752 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1ST edition (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810958473
• ISBN-13: 978-0810958470
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 9.6 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling., May 11, 2007

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The American Civil War: 365 Days (Hardcover)

Margaret E. Wagner, The American Civil War: 365 Days form the Library of Congress (Abrams, 2006)

It took me a very long time to get through this. A good deal of the reason is that the book is, despite its relatively small dimensions, massive; this is not one you'll be carrying with you on your morning commute or reading in the park. You may want to get it a podium of its very own. It's probably worth it.

Wagner selected, as the subtitle tells you, three hundred sixty-five (actually, closer to five hundred; there are a number of small inset pictures, and many pages have more than one picture) photos, handbills, posters, and other ephemera from the Civil War era, and presents them here with some framing text. Actually, "some framing text" is an understatement-- you'll spend as much time reading as you will contemplating photographs, and Wagner's charm is that she spends a good deal of time illuminating dark corners of the war neglected in history books, or shining different lights on them than we're used to seeing. The result is a quite different look at the war than we're used to, and that makes this absorbing and worth reading. Just make sure you have someplace sturdy to set it while doing so. ****

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes the Civil War a reality, February 24, 2007

By 

nsx12 (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Civil War: 365 Days (Hardcover)

This book was wonderful. I have never been overly interested in the Civil War until reading/looking at this book. The division of the book into topics helped me analyze different general aspects of conflict and concern at the time, and the phenomenal selection of photos, maps, drawings, cartoons humanized the time period and the war itself and made it very real. The book also filled in some historical holes for me: The picture of George Armstrong Custer as a young officer, for example, gave me a sense of Custer as a man, as well as of how the history of the Old West fits together with that of the North and South. I borrowed the book from the library, couldn't put it down, rushed right out and bought it.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent pictoral and written history of the war, May 21, 2006

By 

Evan McMillan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Civil War: 365 Days (Hardcover)

The American Civil War: 365 Days provides an excellent pictoral history of the war backed up with a brief written history. I added this to my classroom civil war collection as soon as I saw finished reading it. Recommended.