Customer Reviews

Florida in the Civil War (FL) (Civil War History)

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

 

 

As the preface to the book states, the authors intended for it to be an overview of the Civil War in Florida. And in this it succeeds. However, some glaring oversights by the book's editors/proofreaders and some repetitious narration mar an otherwise good book.

The Good:
As stated above, this book aims to be an introduction to the complicated history of the the Civil War in Florida. The authors did an outstanding job of covering the many aspects of war time Florida, from participation by Florida units in far off battles to the struggles of the populace on the home front. They managed to delve deep enough into the events and issues to keep the reader interested while not going so deep as to unbalance the coverage.

Also, the extensive bibliography at the end of the book gives the reader a great source for more detailed information on the many topics covered in this book.

The Bad:
The intent to make the book an overview of the war in Florida also serves as a drawback. The flow of the book is a bit uneven with the some chapters repeating too much of what had been stated in earlier chapters. It seems as if the authors each wrote certain chapters but did not read what the other wrote in an effort adjust their own portions to keep the narrative smooth. This occurs throughout the book in almost every chapter.

Some glaring errors appear in the book, all but one of which are grammatical in nature. Several times throughout the book there are sentances that have extra words or phrases in them; almost like they were taken from a rough draft and never finalized. Also, one date regarding events surrounding the aftermath of Gettysburg is wrong. This does not reflect highly upon the publisher, Arcadia, and does much to question the justification for charging $29.95 for the book.

Overall this is a good book for anyone who wants a quick reference or a springboard into learning about the Civil War in Florida. With the grammatical and factual mistakes corrected, this would be a perfect book for any school library. As it stands now, it's not a particularly good value but worth reading regardless.

A very informed book that keep me intrigued, a good history lesson on floridas part in the civil war, such as a state that supplied the confederates with food and many good men. Good book to read on a cold winter nite.
DWS