Customer Reviews

April 1865: The Month That Saved America

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I watched Jay Winik give a talk about April 1865 on C-SPAN's Bookspan. WOW! We just HAD to get this book after listening to this incredibly articulate author. I didn't think anyone could really put a new (non-revisionist) set of ideas about the Civil War, but Winik really focuses on the men and the time of April 1865 and how the events of that month were such a pivotal time in our history.

The section on the Booth plot revealed facts I'd forgotton or didn't know (the attack also included Seward, Secretary of State and was as devastating in its time as the attack on the WTC.)

The insights about Lee are fascinating. Lincoln held Lee in great esteem and Lee's gentleman-soldier qualities probably saved the United States from a protracted struggle and ultimate destruction. If Lee and his men had gone guerilla, as had been suggested to him, we might never have survived the Civil War and would have been easy pickings for European powers. Lee literally determined the course of history during that fateful month.

If you are a history fan, you will of course be interested in reading this fresh view on a well-trodden subject. If you aren't normally a history fan, but have recently gotten more interested in American history and patriotic subjects due to the recent attacks on the US, you will find valuable insight into our national character and background in this book. Highly recommended.

Wish I could give this book 4.8 stars. I do agree with the bulk of the praise given it, and I especially like the author's ability to view the end of the war and reestablishment of our nation from his professional and modern perspective. The book doesn't lack for insight. Still, there are times when jarring errors pop up. Winik treats Gen. James "Pete" Longstreet as 2 men, James Longstreet and Pete Longstreet. Even gives them seperate index listings. When he goes into reverant and affectionate nicknames Lee's troops had for him, he lumps such derisive ones as "Granny" and "King of Spades" (from when he assumed command in 1862 and his men were less than impressed)as among the compliments paid him. Winik also bites on LaSalle Pickett's creation of deep friendship between Lincoln and George Pickett. The bulk of current opinion is that the relationship is one of the myths Gen Pickett's widow created about him. My view is that any historian who wishes to present that relationship as factual should state what he bases his movement against the tide upon. Winik doesn't.

My overall view is that Winik did an exceptional amount of research outside his area of specialty and did the bulk of it very well. The book is both enjoyable and important. Much so because of his professional assessment of the unstable state of our nation in April of 1865. For that reason it transcends small issues such as the ones raised above. At the same time, the fact that such issues can be raised, suggests to me that while his range and scope are impressive, other matters of nuance and context might also have been missed or misstated as well. His attempt to make his end notes more 'readable' make it difficult verify some of his assertions.

This remains an excellant book. That someone writing about the Civil War could somehow believe that just as the CSA had 2 General Hills, it also had General Longstreets, and STILL get a "4" rating rather than a "0" speaks loads about the worth of this book.

My great grandfather, a poor farmer in Bedford County,Va., was NOT a slave owner. At age 30, he joined the Confederate army, not returning to his wife and 5 children for 4 long years. After reading the amazing Wall Street Journal review that called April 1865 "magnificant" I had to get a copy. April 1865 is so moving and so splendid that the review can not possibly do it justice. I read April 1865 with tears streaming. Author Jay Winik has an amazing grasp of American history and he makes it come alive. This is a healing book, one that fully explains the reasons for the Civil War. April 1865 made me appreciate for the first time how the decisions of people like Lincoln, Lee and Grant saved America from the terrible fate that has befallen other countries afflicted by Civil War - countries like Bosnia and Northern Ireland. Most importantly, the writing is incredible. You will stay up at night to finish it and will end it feeling proud and humble to be American - with all the blessings this country offers.

When I saw an ad for April 1865, with lavish praise from Doris Kearns Goodwin, James McPherson, and Paul Johnson, I thought this must be a pretty good book. Well, it's even better. Winik's "April 1865" is one of the best histories I've read in years. It reads like a grand story -- brilliantly constructed, filled with rich insights, and paced like a good page-turner. The book reminds me of one of those great histories that come along every once in a rare while -- in a class with Tuchman's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Guns of August" or McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Winik also has a knack for asking the questions that other historians never seemed to have thought of. He points out (rightly) that far too many civil wars end badly or are perpetually self-renewing -- think of the centuries old "Irish Question," or the ongoing bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia, or the horrors of Rwanda. Positioning America within the larger sweep of history, Winik then shows that America's Civil War could easily have ended just as badly -- but didn't. Why? Winik tells that fascinating story. I highly recommend this book.

The phrase "living history" is often falsly ascribed to books that take the reader back to a period and the events being written about. In the case of Jay Winik's "April 1865", this phrase is an understatement. Winik has managed to achieve what so few writers ever come close too. He weaves the complex web of events that and individuals who helped shape the UNITED STATES that we know and love into a narrative which is truely magnificent. The political, military and above all moral dilemmas facing Lee, Grant, Lincoln et al in the closing days of the Civil War come to life at the end of Winik's fluid penmanship. One can only imagine the truely appaling consequences for all involved in that bloody conflict as the remnants of Lee's once great army struggled to escape the jaws of Grant's seemingly endless onslaught. Again Winik takes the reader into the thoughts of the adversaries, both those who would ultimately decide the fate of both armies, and the men who struggled to understand why they were there and what they were fighting and dying for. Winik more so than any Civil War writer todate encapsulates the motivations of various individuals - Union and Confederate - and the way in which parties on both sides could have chosen a far more horrific and uncertain outcome.

From the prelude to the last page, Winik's unique style of conveying such a complex and oft misunderstood period in our history, will keep the reader enthralled and longing for more. This work truely deserves to become one of the standard texts on any Civil War reading list and should become a classic. A truely magnificent achievement!

As a West Point graduate, I have always been very interested in the Civil War. This book is more than marvelous, because it breaks new ground, with vivid insights of Lee, Grant, Lincoln, Johnston, and Sherman-- among others-- and the strains and agony these leaders endured in April 1865. The passages on guerrilla warfare are chilling - but accurate history. I've read countless Civil War books and visited many battlefield sites. But I've never seen anyone put the war into context the way Winik does-- and he gives you a background to appreciate it in terms of American and even some world history. This is no dull history lesson. The writing is incredible, the narration engrossing-- readers can almost smell the smoke and hear the gunfire. Winik's story more than matches the narrative. If more historians wrote, researched and analyzed like Winik, Americans would be clamoring to learn more about their past. This is a terrific book; you won't find a better history all year. Just like Ike and Douglas MacArthur -- Five Stars-- and totally deserved!

This is a magnificent book, as good as On The Brink, this author's first book. So many people think that the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, but Winik explains how the war could have gone on for a long time but for the character and principles of some of the key players. I teach high school history, and have been an amateur Civil War historian since being born in Virginia, and this book is one of the top 4 or 5 I have ever read on this topic. Winik makes this war come alive with understanding and insight few others have had or at least been able to write. Highly recommended.

I am a long time civil war buff, a practicing doctor, and an avid reader of history. In April 1865 Jay Winik has produced one of the most magnificent books I have ever read: beautifully written, brilliantly conceived, richly insightful, and fresh. It is a MASTERPIECE.

Winik understands that there are brief intervals in history were everything seemed at risk, from war's beginnings-think September 1940, when Hitler was poised to cross the English Channel and only the Royal Air Force could stop him, or August 1914, when the world rumbled toward a war that statesman couldn't prevent, to the ends of wars, think the ongoing horrors of Northern Ireland, or Lebanon, or the Balkans today. Winik ranks in a league with the few gifted historians who tell a compelling story: David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robert Massie, and his powerful narrative and shrewd insights remind me of Barbara Tuchman's magisterial Guns of August. To his credit, Winik is also willing to go against the grain. The superficial view of the Civil War's end is that once Lee agreed to Grant's terms at Appomattox, the war was over. Winik, by helping us see the dynamic events much as the protagonists themselves did, shows just how wrong this is. Between the call of many -including Jefferson Davis, and a number of Robert E. Lee's men, the country could have descended into a destructive guerilla war. After the assassination of Lincoln, retribution and chaos could have been the order of the day. In either case, the reconciliation of North and South could have been hindered and we could have ended like the Northern Irelands of the world.

I don't want to give the rest away. April 1865 is uncommonly and richly textured; it is gripping; it is one of the best books I have ever read. And finally, I should add, this book left me in tears, wanting to read it all over again.

I was so enthralled by this book that I wanted to submit a second review to continue talking about it.

Winik presents a compelling case that April 1865 was the single most momentous 30-day period in our nation's 226-year history. The rapid-fire progression of events includes the fall of the Southern citadel of Richmond; Lee's last-gasp attempt to link up with Johnston's forces in North Carolina; Lincoln's far-sighted River Queen edict (advising lenient treatment of former Confederates after years of Total Warfare); the capitulation of Lee's once-mighty (and still dangerous) Army of Northern Virginia, Grant's benevolent terms of surrender, and the poignant Stacking of Arms at Appomattox; Lincoln's brutal assassination four days later and the failed conspiracy to decapitate the Union government; Lee's equanimity in defeat and his urgings for a peaceful re-incorporation in the Union; the manhunt for and slaying of the contempible Booth and the execution of his co-conspirators; Johnston's decision to ignore exhortations (from Davis and others) to prolong the conflict, and the magnanimous surrender fashioned by the warrior Sherman; the domino-like falling in line of other Rebel commanders like Forrest and Taylor.

From the rush of these events, a unified nation would emerge, and, Winik observes, the U.S. would be spared the prospect of continued partisan conflict and debilitating strife and division -- a fate that has beset so many other war-scarred nations.

Get this book and enjoy it. It's an excellent exposition of the role of the Civil War in forging a truly United States of America.

This is one of those special books that genuinely deserves its New York Times bestseller status. April 1865 is fresh, thoughtful, extremely well-researched, and exceptionally well-written. Jay Winik takes events we all think we know and suddenly makes us understand that there was nothing inevitable about Appomattox or the country surviving the Lincoln assasination just five days later. His portraits of the central players -- Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Sherman -- and many others give you a powerful sense of the men and the era and what they all had to overcome. As a Northerner transplanted by work to the South, I have gained a far better appreciation and understanding of my country after reading this book. You can enjoy it if you are a devoted Civil War buff or a novice reader, like my wife. April 1865 is destined to become a classic, while at the same time being one of those rare books that is a true delight to read. If I had had professors like Jay Winik, I might have been a history major -- but this book almost makes up for that. Highly recommended.