Customer Reviews

The Everything Civil War Book: Everything You Need to Know About the War That Divided the Nation (Everything (History & Travel))

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have always been interested in war history, mainly WWII and have read much on that subject but had never read anything on The Civil War. As of late I decided to read some books on the subject and this book was given to me for Christmas. This is a wonderful book in that it gives the reader a complete, precise fact filled overview of the war. It is easy to read and move through ( I finished it in 2 days) and lays the groundwork for the reader to move on to a deeper study of the subject with this as the foundation. Highly recommend!

While I own many Civil War books, I found this to be a fun read. It covers all the basics and goes over the key events in such a way as to keep the readers attention. Get recap for Civil War buffs

This is a fun, fact-filled overview of the Civil War. Highlights include biographies of the major political and military participants, and a fascinating glimpse at mid-century America. Vaughan has definitely done his homework -- this is a wonderful read, accurate and loaded with little known facts and intriguing minutae. A must for Civil War aficianados and history buffs in general.

This is the greatest civil war paperback that I have ever read. It is printed in very readable type size and has some illustrations. The book is also nicely sized. It is an enormous treasure of civil war information. One can quickly read this book and it is so well chaptered, it can be referenced quickly for specific data. I highly recommend it.

It was a great book!!! we went to gettysburg and the book helped to figure out the lay out and why things happened.

A surprisingly robust summary of the main elements of the Civil War, the book begins with the causes of the war: They were multiple (not a single cause), involving, among others, industrial competition between the North and South, slavery, Western expansion and states rights. In various ways these issues had been simmering for the better part of a decade and all came together in a perfect storm with the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln.

And then the book discusses the key economic and political issues: With "king cotton" ruling the global economy as oil does today, the South (doing so, completely on the backs of its black slaves), had begun to flex its economic muscles well beyond its region -- as it provided about 75% of the $1 billion dollar annual world cotton market. Yet, its very success, through its rural-ness and dependence on slavery, became its Achilles heel as both were the main reasons the South lacked the industrial might of the North and was unprepared to fight a war. Plus, of the 9.5 million southerners, half were black and could not be relied upon during times of war. The North on the other hand saw a rapid expansion in immigration around 1850, and thus had large reserves of both manpower and war critical raw materials, 90% of the nation's rail lines, and about two and a half times the war aged population of the South.

The narrative then moves from issues to people giving more than just a thumbnail sketch of the key players; their bios, covers the Lincoln-Douglas debates, both of Lincoln terms as President and his assassination. It discusses the pivotal role of the Border States, the process of secession, and European reactions to the establishment of the CSA.

Finally, it covers the major battles of the war, the weapons used, its horrors both on the front and back home, and the chronicling the history of the war. Altogether this is a veritable Civil War feast. Four Stars

For school, I have to do a 40 page report on the Civil War. Obviously, I would know where the good Civil War books are and where the bad ones are. Believe me, if you want a book on the Civil War, this is the best! It has everything you need to know, and more! With pictures, diagrams, and more, it goes into detail, but is very understandable. An all-around A+ and highly reccommended!

The Everything series is a great way to explore a subject in a condensed version. The Civil War and World War 2 editions are a fantastic source of information and an interesting read.

I started reading this book while reading Grant's Personal Memoirs ( a must read for Civil War buffs). It is an excellent resource for educating yourself on the Civil War. It is easy to read and provides a time-line of events of the Civil War in the back of the book. The book is cleverly sectioned: a short biography of military leaders, battles, weapons used, a brief description of the assassination of Lincoln and a lot more. This book gets to the point of just about everything you want or need to know about the Civil War.

I'm a little surprised by the effusive reviews. It's OK -- what's a little unique is that it's organized by topic rather than chronology -- for example: weapons, battles, heroes, family life, etc. -- so you can pick up some interesting facts/perspectives. A "hard core" historian probably won't find much here -- pretty basic. I think either the "for dummies" or "complete idiot" book is probably a better intro.