Don't Know Much About the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned [Paperback]

Kenneth C. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Don't Know Much About... | Publication Date: September 1, 1999

Why did Abraham Lincoln sneak into Washington for his inauguration? Was the Gettysburg Address written on the back of an envelope?Where did the Underground Railroad run?

Can you answer these questions? If not, you're not alone! New York Times-bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, the key events -- Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe -- and providing little-known facts that will enthrall even learned Civil War buffs. Vivid, informative, and hugely entertaining, Don't Know Much About® the Civil War is the only book you'll ever need on "the war that never ended."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Historian Kenneth C. Davis brings his remarkable ability for making the past vital and entertaining to this in-depth study of the United States' bloodiest conflict. Not content to rehash the one-dimensional accounts that traditional history textbooks have foisted upon students, Davis reexamines with a fresh, critical eye the situations leading up to and the key events that shaped the Civil War. He begins by reaching back to the earliest days of American history to understand the political, economic, and social conditions that allowed a nation founded upon the notion that "all men are created equal" to enslave and degrade 12 million human souls. In his detailed account of the war's battles and political power struggles, he introduces us to the personalities--from Abraham Lincoln, General Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglas to common soldiers and war widows--whose vision, compromises, determination, and powerlessness together made history. Davis also brings to light little-known facts and episodes that for generations were ignored or swept under the rug of the American conscience--including the role of women in the war effort and the massacre of blacks at the hands of Union civilians. All Americans would do well to take a new look at this period of history that "shaped the country's political landscape like the great glaciers had once carved America" because, as Davis explains, its effects linger today. "The Civil War," he says, "remains at the core of our greatest national problem: the great racial divide that grew from slavery." Few programs speak with such intelligence and eloquence about how far the United States has come in terms of what the war taught--and how far it still has to go. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --Uma Kukathas --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-Kenneth C. Davis provides listeners with everything they need to know about the Civil War.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380719088
• ISBN-13: 978-0380719082
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken Davis is the author of Don't Know Much About History, which spent 35 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and gave rise to the Don't Know Much About series, which has a combined in-print total of 4.3-million copies.Ken Davis has been dubbed The King of Knowing by Amazon.com because he becomes a subject expert in all of the areas he writes about; the Bible, Mythology, the Universe, the Civil War, for example. Ken has also been a Wise Man; on Who Wants to be a SuperMillionaire and a Life Line on the regular edition of the show. Ken Davis's success aptly makes the case that Americans don't hate history, just the dull version they slept through in class. But many of them want to know now because their kids are asking them questions they can't answer. Davis's approach is to refresh us on the subjects we should have learned in school. He does it by busting myths, setting the record straight and always remembering that fun is not a four-word letter word. A somewhat well-kept secret: Ken Davis never graduated from college, but he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Concordia College in Bronxville, where he was also asked to give a commencement address. Ken Davis is a frequent media guest. He has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, including NPR, The Today Show, Fox and Friends, CNN, and The Discovery Channel. He has been a commentator for All Things Considered, and has written for the New York Times. In addition to his adult titles, he writes the Don't Know Much About Children's series published by HarperCollins. He lives in New York with his wife. They have two grown children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written - Poorly edited, December 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Know Much About the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Paperback)

Davis's prose is entertaining and brings the era to life with excerpts from diaries and letters of the period. However, the factual errors in the book are very distracting. I am by no means a Civil War historian, but without looking for them, I discovered at least 5 egregious factual errors in the book. (Page numbers refer to the 2001 paperback edition published by Perennial.)

1. (p. 78) "...President Jackson recognized the independence of Texas in 1836, on his last day in office." Since the Presidential election was in 1836, Jackson's last day in office was in 1837. He recognized the independence of Texas in March of 1837.
2. (p. 113) "His (President Pierce) Cabinet includes War Secretary Jefferson Davis ... a former senator from South Carolina." Jefferson Davis was a senator from Mississippi.
3. (p. 139) "On December 20, 1865, a special convention met in Charleston, and South Carolina became the first state to leave the Union." 1865???
4. (p. 275) Referring to the Emancipation Proclamation: "Lincoln's proclamation, announced the previous July after Antietam..." Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862. If the Emancipation Proclamation was announced AFTER Antietam, it wasn't announced in July, and if it was announced in JULY, it wasn't announced after Antietam. The text was actually published on September 23, 1862.
5. (p. 364) "Arkansas, a slaveholding state that remained in the Union, adopts a new antislavery constitution." Arkansas did NOT remain in the Union. It seceded on May 6, 1861.

A book so crammed with facts is bound to contain misstatements and typos, but a dedicated author and a conscientious editor should have caught these very obvious errors.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A perfect place to start, with one excception, March 16, 2006

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Know Much About the Civil War : Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...(Paperback)) (Paperback)

For anyone wanting a basic education about the American Civil War, either as an educational requirement or as perhaps a lifetime hobby of interest, this is the perfect place to start. Author Davis covers every aspect of this great confrontation (except one) from the real reasons it was fought to how it came to its conclusion. There are thumbnail sketches of most of the participants on both sides, some in great detail; all of the major battles are incorporated, including the strategies and reasons for their outcome; myths are busted (no, Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg Address on an envelope); heroes and cowards receive their just desserts. My only complaint: Not one map. How can you write a history book without maps? How can your write a book about war without battlefield sketches? The book is presented chronologically in an expanded outline form, with questions asked and then answers given, making this an easy tome to return to and find quick information about specific topics. The index is equally complete in listing names and places. There is a terrific appendix giving complete documentation on such important aspects as The Emancipation Proclamation, The Dred Scott decision, Amendments to the Constitution, and much more. Even with all this detail, the book is very readable. Within this book, a person could find a narrow scope that intrigues and can lead to further exploration, whether it is Andersonville, The Underground Railroad, Gideon Welles, or the burning of Atlanta. To aid in this exploration, there is a 16-page bibliography that, in addition to title information, describes briefly what area each book covers. This is a treasure trove. But, bring your own maps.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but somewhat Shallow, July 5, 2006

By 

B. Breen "Canuckster1127" (Sterling, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Know Much About the Civil War (Audio Cassette)

I listened to this book on tape and enjoyed it overall. I confess, I had some issues as I listened to the book as I am apparently in that class of people who actually does enjoy and study history. I found the anecdotes entertaining and overall found the book appropriate for its purpose as a primer for a majority of the populace who apparently doesn't have even a cursory grasp of the keystone event in American History. It does have a tendency however to oversimplify some of the issues in an apparent effort to create a framework to understand not only the events, but their socio-economic-political implications.

You have only to read the other reviews of this work for evidence that many of the philosophical and political battles of the civil war are still being fought in American Society.

Most criticism of this work seems to be directed at Davis' contention that slavery was the issue of the Civil War. Davis does go to great lengths to make this point. It is by no means a slam dunk as there are many reputable historians who downplay this claim as an over-simplification.

However, Davis is not writing this book as a competitor or replacement for the weighty works of academia that address this question. Davis is writing to a more general audience that he appears to perceive as attempting to sluff over or bypass this issue from the civil way, perhaps in some effort to minimize or bypass the issues of racism and civil rights inequities today.

In those terms, Davis seems to be going to great lengths to address the issue in order to convince them that:

1. Slavery is not a new issue.
2. Slavery was integrally entwined within many of the issues cited then and since for the Civil War.

States rights were an issue? Of course they were! What were the states primarily asserting their rights to control that they believed the North and then Lincoln were threatening? Slavery was primary in this regard.

Were taxes and tariffs tied into the argument. Yes it was. What were the taxes and tariffs centered around? Issues related to the agricultural South and the industrial North who preferred to see these applied to the others and not themselves. What drove the southern agricultural system and undergirded it in the context of the times? Was it state's rights? Yes, but primarily as those state's rights applied to slavery!

Are detractors correct when they claim that many who fought the war from the North were equally racist and had no real desire to benefit negro slaves? Yes, that is undeniably true. Were there many who fought on the Southern side who did not own slaves and would have been just as happy to see slavery ended? Absolutely.

The truth of the matter is, however, that slavery as a political issue was inextrably in the weave of all the issues leading up to Lincoln's election and succession.

In this regard, maybe Davis is overstating and oversimplifying things from the point of view of anyone who is already familiar with the events of and surrounding the civil war. The point to be made, is perhaps he needs to do this with his intended audience of neophytes and newcomers who need to be slapped in the face with it to dispel the opposite error which seems to have diminished the role of slavery and then civil rights development within the US.

That said, if you have questions after reading or listening to this book, then you'll at least have a platform from which to do further research.

So, I recommend this book. It does what it sets out to do which is to introduce people with little or no historical background not only into the events of the Civil War, but the political and societal context of it.

In order to do that you have to take a stand and make a case for what you are saying. Like it or not; agree with it or not; Davis does just that and he does a credible job.

Those criticizing it on that basis are beyond the purpose of the book and for whatever reasons still fighting the original battles.

Better here than on the battlefield!

Read it. Learn. Then move on and question the premises in additional reading after this fine introduction.