Customer Reviews

American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (R)

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This book is truly a must for anyone who wants a Civil War library. No other Civil War book has a richer breadth of imagery than this tome. This should be your second book after Battle Cry of Freedom, and your next should be Shelby Foote's trilogy. After that, pick books on narrower topics of interest to you.

There is only one reason for not making this your first book. As its title implies, it focuses on the pictures of the Civil War, and as such it has little room for more than an overview of the events in the words accompanying the pictures. However, there truly is only one failing of this book, and that is that it is out of print as I write this; a fault that will probably be remedied soon.

This was my second Civil War book, which I received for Christmas when I was 12 (thanks Mom!). My love of the subject probably has a lot to do with this excellent volume, which I pored over for many years. It is loaded with photos, illustrations, and maps as well as Bruce Catton's EXCELLENT narrative. While this narrative does not go into extensive detail (the enormous scope of the war prohibts this), it is clearly written and a treasure trove of knowledge for those interested in a one-volume overview of the Civil War. Catton was a much respected Civil War historian who influenced many of today's historians. This book (which had been out of print for years) has recently been reissued with all new photos and illustrations while still preserving the original Catton text. As these new illustrations tend to be more informative to the Civil War student than the original version's (the original had a lot of photographs of Civil war battlefields as they appear today, which are of limited usefulness), this is the preferred edition. The new edition has a white dust jacket, while the original had a grey dust jacket. Either edition, however, will serve you well in studying the deadliest war in United States history. HIGHLY recommended, especially to beginning Civil War buffs or anyone who would like to read about one of the most important chapters in our country's history.

Flipping through this big book, you lose yourself at times in the feeling that you were there. The destruction displayed (have you ever seen an entire hillside covered with dead men?) exists side by side with accounts of desperate valor.

This book was precisely the book I was looking for. This particlar book had maps and drawings that no other book had. I remember the book from my high school days and have looked everywhere to find it. I expected it to be an older book and the one I got was in great shape for its age. The seller was very concerned that I knew it was and older book and communicated with me to make sure I was satisfied. Boy!! was I. should have come to Amazon in the first place when I first started looking for the book. A lesson learned.

This book is filled with illustrations of paintings as well as photo's of the time period. A great find for the civil war buff. It has a index of battles and units that make it a fun for anyone who needs a good resource of information. It is Hard bound and is a large book. I have the book on World war 2 and Love it also.

This book is filled with illustrations of paintings as well as photo's of the time period. A great find for the civil war buff. It has a index of battles and units that make it a fun for anyone who needs a good resource of information. It is Hard bound and is a large book. I have the book on World war 2 and Love it also.

This superb overview of the civil war in photos, maps and illustrations makes you feel as if you're there in Federal Blue or Rebel Gray. One can learn much from author Bruce Catton's readable prose, or by merely viewing the hundreds of photo's and illustrations. Readers get a feel for the tragic conflict, from its pre-war controversies to the sad days when North and South were at each other's throats. We learn about military leadership, strategies, army life, battles, morale, slavery, sociology, politics, etc. Catton has done an excellent job, although this book is more overview for general audiences than detailed history. For that reason Civil War buffs will want this volume as a companion to detailed writings from authors like Catton, Shelby Foote, James McPherson, etc. Still, this is a superb effort, one that should be of equal interest to general readers and aficionados alike.

I was given this book back in high school, or maybe college, and to be honest I did not find it all that interesting. I held onto it, though, and now after picking it up again in my forties, and I find it fascinating!

First, Bruce Catton is a great writer. His prose is a pleasure to read. So you get a beautiful collection of Civil War paintings, illustrations, and photographs, plus a great written history of the Civil War at the same time.

Catton seems to have a sympathy for the South, compared to some other Civil War materials I have read. He seems to have much affection and admiration for the southern soldiers, while being more stingy in showing the same for the northern soldiers. He also seems to have no feeling that the North were the "good guys" and that the South were the "bad guys" due to slavery. He seems to stay neutral as to any good guys or bad guys, and just gives a history of the war. (Or maybe he just objectively feels that the southern soldiers were more skilled and faced more challenges than their northern counterparts, and I perceive that as sympathy.)

This book is a great way to get a solid overview of the entire Civil war from beginning to end.

Now that I think of it, this book has a lot of similarities to a modern Civil War television documentary. You get a written history in bite-sized pieces (which would correspond to the narration in a television documentary), combined with images that help you understand what happened even more deeply.

I remember first reading this book in the 80's and it captured my attention as a child. Ever since reading it I have been a Civil War "fan"(don't know if that's the right word or not). The book goes into GREAT detail about the war(630 pages!). The various battles are covered in great depth. The battle maps with illustrated troops are like nothing I have ever seen before or since. The historic photos are plentiful and very good. There are also photos of then and now comparisons. There's a reason why the author won a Pulitzer and you will see why when reading this book.

Allow me to add a different perspective on this book.

You see, I hail from the small south american country of Bolivia. Why the connection you will ask? Because when I was 8 my father returned from post-graduate studies in the USA. One of the many things he brought back was this book. At first, my only interest was the gorgeous overview illustrations of the most important battles. They captured my imagination completely as I tried to recreate them in my own drawings. I do remember reading some strange sounding names such as Shiloh, Antietam among many others. But it was the pictures that captivated me. Time and time again I would pull it out of my father's study and spent countless hours with it.

My father had meant the book to be an introduction not only to American history but to the whole northern culture as well. And by northern I mean all of the USA. A culture, my father would say, that would not hesitate to trade blood for time when it came to solving difficult issues such as national unity, slavery and later, civil rights.

Many years later, by then a resident of the US, I found this book at a used book store in Memphis, TN. Was I elated!!! It was like going back in time. Except this time, the experience was different. This time I read the book completely intent on understanding the content. Needless to say I purchased the book and literally ran home to start devouring it. It was the start of a 20 year quest to understand the ACW.

Many countries have had internecine wars, but none captures the essence of the human struggle like the American Civil War. And as such, this book should be obligatory reading, in my honest opinion, even if the word obligatory may have un-democratic overtones.

The book stands the test of time, my friends. In its simplicity it manages to do what countless other works cannot. It introduces one of the most serious of topics to a universal audience. There is no bias in it, although some of my southern friends do feel like it falls short of conveying the Confederate side and the reasons why the average southerner went to war. I respectufully disagree. You must read the narrative carefully to appreciate that in short phrases the author managed to captured so much meaning. From First Bull Run to Appomattox, to Andersonville, and beyond, this book will take you there as if it were a time machine. Printing technology has long surpassed the state of the art when this book was first published, but make no mistake: it is still literary gold, even after all this years and dare I say it for the foreseeable future.

I've since come to own bookshelves worth of ACW material, but this one, this great book, the work of a great historian still holds a dear place in my mind and heart. You will surely find more in-depth studies, perhaps more technically adept writers, certainly works without the oversimplications that Mr. Catton had to make in order to appeal to a wider audtience. But it s the grandest introduction you can have to the ACW. And in this Mr Catton succeeded like no one other before or since.

A few years ago, I visited my dad and found this book still in his library, the original. By now the pages were yellowing with age, some of the pages with hints of my childhood presence. Must confess to being teary-eyed. Regrettably, Mr. Catton passed away in 1978 which means I -like countless others undoubtedly, cannot express my eternal gratitude but in thought.

This book is a treasure and I truly look forward to introducing it to my 8 year old son. May the legacy continue.