Customer Reviews

The Civil War For Dummies

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dr. Keith Dickson has provided us with a well written, easy to read book on the Civil War which is a must read for everyone - to include history addicts such as myself. This inspiring book is an exceptional tribute to our soldiers and leaders and the sacarifices they made for our nation. Keith Dickson has written an inspiring, sad, educational, and fitting tribute of ordinary people placed in extordinary situations. His insightful writing weaves the inspirational story of the Civil War into easily understood sections, which permits the reader to start and stop at easily defined areas.

This book captures the essence of the battles, the thinking of the leadership, the mood of north and south, and the deep division which occurred. The histories themselves are brutally honest and moving. There are no false notes; the book is as much a testimony to the dignity and heroism of its subjects as it is to the horror of war. This is not your typical "dummies book" but a strongly felt and well-written entry among a spate of books on the Civil War. I highly recommend this book for everyone and promise you will not be disappointed.

What began as a way to find out a little more about the Civil War has turned into a full blown passion. And what book do I thank for that? Well actually there are two. While reading Carl Sandburg's three volume bio on Abraham Lincoln, I realized I need to know a little more about the Civil War. So I borrowed a copy of "The Civil War for Dummies" and was hooked.

Because I read this book, it stirred in me an intense interest and desire to know more about the CW. Now I belong to a CW Roundtable in my area and I'm studying on my own different aspects of the CW.

It is a wonderfully easy book to read and get the very basics of the Civil War. From there one can move on to some of the classics.

I highly recommend this book for a beginning view of the CW or as quick reference guide.

If you don't care anything about the Civil War, History, Strategy, Politics, Economics, Nationalism, or Sociology you will STILL love this book! This is just a great story about people and issues that could have been taken fom todays headlines. It also explains how many of the institutions that still affect us today (Income Taxes, The Two Party System, Modern Military Tactics, Centralization of Government Aerial reconnaissance, the Navy, Torpedoes to name a few) came about and why. It talks about such thing as Blacks who fought as Unions and Confederates as well as the Secession of an Indian territories as well. Also read U.S. History for Dummies and World History for Dummies both of which were Awesome!!! By the way did I mention that I hate to read?

I was trying to decide between the Idiot's Guide to the Civil War and this one; I'm glad I chose this one because Dr. Dickson displays a keen expertise on military strategy and history. He clearly presents the historical background to the causes of the Civil War, the military strategies used by both sides (Union and Confederate), the heroes and the "goats" of the conflicts, and the consequences of the battles. Interspersed throughout the informative text are helpful maps and diagrams of the battles, and nice summary reports of each battle and the statistics of the opposing armies. For example, for the famous battle of Gettysburg, Dr. Dickson gives a day by day analysis of the fighting, gives a battle captain's synopsis report, tells the significance of the battle, and then describes who the heroes and goats of the battle were.

The last chapters contain helpful information on touring Civil War sites, a synopsis of the worst generals, and a series of "10 biggest" statistics (e.g. the 10 biggest "firsts" in the War, the 10 biggest "What Ifs", the 10 best battlefields, etc.)

Dr. Dickson crams in a lot of information in 368 pages of text, but it is packed full of great, detailed, and easy to understand information. As a history buff, I highly recommend this book as a great introduction and ready reference to the Civil War! I plan to purchase Dr. Dickson's guide to WWII (also in the "Dummies" series).

If you read through this book, you will no longer be a "dummy" as far as the Civil War is concerned, guaranteed. I was very pleased with this reference guide.

I bought this book to study for the DANTES test on Civil war and reconstruction. It was of minimal help. Its a great book if what you are interested in is battle plans, tactics, and a pretty good analysis of each and every battle. The DANTES exam just wanted to know who fought what battle and where, and had questions on Copperheads, fireaters, KKK,and the Lincoln and Johnson administrations that are only glanced it in this book. This is a book about the Civil WAR. To review for the DANTES test find a book about the Civil War and the Civil War ERA.
Since this is the first book I've ever read that was exclusively about the Civil War, I wasn't too sure if 90% of the Southern Generals really were war geniuses and 90% of the Union Generals were compelete idiots, which is how it seems in this author's analysis. The South received more complimentary language than the North. I felt that the author was slightly biassed toward the South.

As a history major in college, this book was a wonderful resource to use in my civil war studies in the fall semester of 04. You don't have to read a lot of bull to get to the grit. Each section of the war are very explanatory and full of detail. I am also plowing through Shelby Foot's books on the civil war. This is a great book for someone who likes civil war history, but don't like to do indepth researching and reading volumes of books.

I recommend this book for beginners who want a good easy, basic study of the Civil War. Not only for beginners but for others who want to brush up on the war. Easy and simple to understand.

I was looking for a good book to refresh my memory of the Civil War. This book gave me an unbiased account from beginning to end. It hits the important points of the war without weighing you down with tons of details. This is a great book for the casual historian, but not necessarily the hard core Civil War junkie.

...I'd have been happier if the "legend" of map symbols did not say "calvary" twice, instead of "cavalry". Come on, folks, we admitted that we're dummies when we bought the book, but that doesn't mean we're idiots.

I could have done without the seemingly random uses of "he or she", "him or her". The book is populated almost exclusively by male characters, as were the armies in question. Save the clumsy PC gibberish for "Political Correctness for Dummies".

EDIT!! REVIEW UPDATE!!

February 8, 2010:
Having finished the book, I've decided to change my review. I downgraded to One Star because this is probably the worst excuse for a history book I've ever seen:

Johnson and Johnston are not the same person.
"Army of Tennessee" and "Army of the Tennessee" are not the same army.
Shifting from past tense to present tense in one set of bullet points is sub-literate.
Using the present tense to describe past events is "History Channel" moronic.
Describing a saber as curved and providing an illustration of a straight sword is not useful.
To mislocate Forts Henry and Donelson is not acceptable.

I won't bother mentioning the grammatical errors or the general clumsiness of the writing. I also won't detail the uselessness of the maps.

This is the first "For Dummies" that I haven't liked. Had it been my first purchase of a "For Dummies", I would never have purchased a second.

Save your money

Dr. Dickson does an excellent job of compressing four years of a nation-wide conflict into less than 400 pages, including the major issues leading up to the war. I would recommend this book highly for students in both high school and college who want to know more about the Civil War, but do not have time to enjoy all the classic histories on the subject.