Coming Fury, Volume 1 [Hardcover]

Bruce Catton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 1961

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award! A thrilling, page-turning piece of writing that describes the forces conspiring to tear apart the United States--with the disintegrating political processes and rising tempers finally erupting at Bull Run. "...a major work by a major writer, a superb re-creation of the twelve crucial months that opened the Civil War."--The New York Times.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Released in 1961 and 1963, respectively, these are the first two volumes in Catton's exhaustive trilogy on the Civil War. Fury traces the events that led to war during the 12 months prior to actual combat. Sword dissects the combatants reassessment of their positions and strategies during early skirmishes.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Bruce Catton was born in 1899. As a child living in a small town in Michigan, Catton was stimulated by the reminiscences of the Civil War that he heard from local veterans. His education at Oberlin College, Ohio, was interrupted by two years of naval service in World War I and was subsequently abandoned for a career in journalism. While he was employed as a reporter for the Boston American, the Cleveland News, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (1920-26), Catton continued his lifelong study of the Civil War period. He subsequently worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Service (1926-41) and for the U.S. War Production Board. In 1954 he became a member of the staff of American Heritage magazine, and from 1959 he served as its senior editor. A commission to write a Centennial History of the Civil War evolved into Catton's celebrated trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. Catton's brilliance as a historian lay in his ability to bring to historical narrative the immediacy of reportage. He died in 1978. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 565 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (September 20, 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385098138
• ISBN-13: 978-0385098137
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Introduction to Our Great National Tragedy, February 1, 2002

By 

James Gallen (St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming Fury (American Civil War Trilogy, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

"The Coming Fury" is a powerful rendition of the sad tale of the disintegration of the Union from the political maneuvers of 1860 to the aftermath of the First Battle of Bull Run.

In this, the first of the Catton trilogy, we are show how the breakdown of the spirit of compromise, which had held together a house divided for four score and four years, contributed to the conflagration to follow.

The major theme of this book is that nothing was inevitable about the lines on which the Union would fracture. The lines of division resulted from a multitude of decisions made by the actors in this national tragedy.

For many with only a superficial knowledge, history is the story of conflict between right and wrong, heroes and villains. When I read history I enjoy books which permit us to see the stories and characters with all their triumphs and failures, virtues and faults. "The Coming Fury" ranks high on the list of such books.

The first casualty of the failure of compromise was the Great Democracy, the Democratic Party, which split into its Northern and Southern wings in 1860, making the election of Abraham Lincoln inevitable that fall.

The election of Lincoln convinced many southerners that the Union was no longer provided a suitable home for them. This book tells the story of how the breakup occurred.

We see James Buchanan, trapped by a cabinet which was as divided as the nation, presiding over the rejection of the Constitution and the dissolution of the Union which he was sworn to preserve and protect and who, incredibly, retired in the belief that he had done a good job under the circumstances.

We see Abraham Lincoln, whose eloquence and political magic are the stuff of legends, stumble his way into Civil War. We learn that the speeches along his route from Springfield to Washington contain nothing of the inspiring rhetoric which now adorns his Memorial.

We see that the South did secede in one monolithic movement. The first seven states seceded nearly in masse, while the remaining slave states waited to see whether a compromise would permit the survival of the nation.

We all know about the firing on Fort Sumter, but how many know what was really at stake? The truth is that the main issue was over the possession of forts. In fact, there were several forts which could have provided the spark which set the nation ablaze, but the honor fell to Sumter and South Carolina.

Although the issue of Fort Sumter revolved around the possession of real estate, the implications were much greater. Several of the Border states swung toward the Confederacy after the attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. It can be said that Lincoln's first crucial decision, that being to reinforce Fort Sumter, lead to the secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, with Maryland and Missouri being held in only by military force. It was Lincoln's political decisions which almost transformed the Confederacy from a rump nation with virtually no chance of survival into state with an excellent prospects.

I was interested in the treatment of General Winfield Scott. I had always thought of him as an old soldier who occupied his chair until he was pushed aside for younger men. In fact, Scott played a major role in the preservation of the country during the period of transition as well as in the formulation of the battle plan which eventually restored its unity.

After the succession of the states, the focus shifts to the preparations for war, both in the north and the south. In the north, the challenge was to organize the forces with which to subjugate the rebellious states. In the south, the simultaneous establishment of both government and army was a truly incredible accomplishment.

With the early preparations completed, the First Battle of Bull Run tested the expectations of all contestants. The battle proved the ineptness of both sides. Bull Run dispelled many notions. Both sides now realized that they were in for a long and hard struggle. Both now realized that the lack of compromise, which had rendered asunder the Democracy in 1860, had rendered any chance of a political resolution null and void. Bull Run had set the stage for the long and bitter struggle which Catton would report in his subsequent two books.

This is a outstanding introduction to our great national tragedy.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Poet of History, September 24, 2002

By 

Richard M. Affleck (Lake Hopatcong, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming Fury (American Civil War Trilogy, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

Jim Gallen has, in an earlier review, summed up quite well the content of Catton's first volume in his centennial history of the Civil War. What I will say is that having read this book, and the two that follow, more than 30 years ago, and having read numerous works on the Civil War since then, I keep coming back to these three volumes. Why? Because more than any other writer on the Civil War (Shelby Foote included) Bruce Catton has produced a book that is almost poetic in its style. His prose makes the people who fought the war or who were otherwise affected by it come alive. From the very first pages of The Coming Fury he gives us a sense of forboding, for the tragedy, the senselessness, and the inevitibility of what lay just down the road for the celebrants at the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1860. Catton is one of the first, I think, to truely take advantage of the letters and diaries of soldiers, sailors, and civilians, and not just official unit histories and canned secondary accounts. If more recent historians have surpassed Catton in digging up details of virtually every aspect of the Civil War, none can touch him in the poetic sweep of his narrative. For anyone interested in a good introduction to our most costly war, Catton is the one to start with.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book For Anyone Who Wants To Know Why The War Came, September 26, 2005

By 

William C Lyles "HoundPony" (Seneca, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming Fury (American Civil War Trilogy, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

For anyone, like I once was, who needs an education on the causes of the Civil War, this book is indespensable. Growing up in the South, I was taught in public schools that slavery had very little to do with the Civil War. Catton not only obliterates this theory, he goes in to much detail about the various conflicts and rivalries (including slavery) which caused an unbridgeable chasm between North and South in the decade leading up to the firing upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861. He clearly demonstrates why these differences in philosophy would erupt into war, which in retrospect was probably the only way America could ever be united in our collective belief system, which we now take for granted. I would recommend this book (and Catton's entire Civil War Trilogy series for that matter) to both casual reader and Civil War buff alike. In fact, it should be required reading for ALL americans.