Atlas Of The Civil War [Hardcover]

James M. McPherson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

Here is the definitive reference to the battles of the Civil War, written by America’s leading military historians and edited by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War expert James M. McPherson. This authoritative volume includes gripping eyewitness accounts plus 200 specially commissioned, full-color maps that detail all of the major campaigns and many of the smaller skirmishes of the war between the states. Maps provide a superb visual reference to troop movement, battlefield terrain, and communication lines. Dynamic reconstructions depict battles fought on land, river, and ocean, and time-line descriptions provide play-by-play commentary of the action. With more than 200 photographs and many personal accounts that vividly recount the experiences of soldiers in the fields, this book brings to life the human drama that pitted the north against the south.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Pulitzer Prize^-winning author McPherson is Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton. In addition to the prizewinning Battle Cry of Freedom, his books include Struggle for Equality and Marching toward Freedom. The contributors to The Atlas of the Civil War are academics and military-park historians.

The 200 maps in this specialized atlas show troop movements (first and second positions, retreats), physical features, and the location of towns and counties. Clearly defined symbols indicate army hierarchies (corps, division, brigade), topographic features, and battle lines (encampments, siege lines, batteries). Thus, the reader gets a "comprehensive overview of the warfare which was destined to affect Americans for centuries." Arranged around the maps as sidebars and inserts are hundreds of photographs, eyewitness accounts, letters, and news clippings.

The atlas is divided into five sections, each one highlighting a war year from 1861 to 1865. A typical example, the 1864 "Total War," begins with a full-page photograph of General Grant accompanied by a 1,200-word article that provides a context for the two dozen maps that follow. The writing is colorful and engaging. Also presented here is a double-page color lithograph of the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia.

Since the pages measure 9 by 12 inches, the maps are fairly large. Line clarity, color, and detailing are excellent. The photos could almost stand alone as a photographic essay of the war. They strengthen the impact of the maps tremendously. For example, accompanying the map of the Spotsylvania Campaign is a photo of a dead Confederate soldier, captioned, "So devastating had been the Union fire that many of the Confederate dead lay in orderly rows, the alignment of their ranks perfectly preserved." The volume concludes with a brief bibliography and indexes of personal names and place-names.

The four-volume Encyclopedia of the Confederacy [RBB F 1 94] contains 67 maps, most of them on military matters. But with a reasonable price of $40, The Atlas of the Civil War is an excellent buy and will be valued by public and academic libraries serving serious Civil War researchers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

James McPherson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; First edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762423560
• ISBN-13: 978-0762423569
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #614,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He has published numerous volumes on the Civil War, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, Crossroads of Freedom (which was a New York Times bestseller), Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, which won the Lincoln Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars provides good general access - maps have horrible layout, March 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Atlas of the Civil War (Hardcover)

I found the layout of a lot of the maps quite annoying because they are placed across the spine of the book, making them hard, if not impossible, to read. Reconstructing the various situations and commanders' decisions described in the text is often impossible because all the information is crammed into a single map. It is a pity the maps are not as accessible as they are colorful because otherwise the combination of easy-to-read texts, tons of pictures and colorful maps make the atlas a good addition to any civil war literature.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice maps, horrible layout. Not recommended., December 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Atlas of the Civil War (Hardcover)

The maps are beautiful - full color and very informative.

Unfortunately the publisher chose to have just about _every_ map overlap the spine of the book. Ugh! Map information near the spine is either not legible in many cases, or does not align with the other half of the map.

Suggestion to publisher: if you go to a second edition, either enlarge the book so each map fits on one page, or go to a "fold out" format.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars it rates a 10 on appearance but a 7 for accuracy, December 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Atlas of the Civil War (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a companion to reading several of Bruce Catton's histories of the war. Since Catton doesnt go through the war sequentially, and since the atlas doesnt entirely, either, it was tough initially but was helpful once i got the hang of it. But then i realized the material was not entirely accurate, more a result of poor editing than bad information. Several inset maps are shown with incorrect north arrows that lead to disorientation. At other places there are parenthetical references to an inset being "below left" when it is actually "above right." These types of errors undermine the usefulness of a reference book significantly. I considered a large number of atlases -- some specific to the war as well as others -- and this seemed to be the best. perhaps there is a potential market for a civil war era regular atlas so someone reading a history book can follow things better, without the step by step military strategy this atlas has.