Customer Reviews

Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care during the American Civil War

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

 

 

Gangrene and Glory is a great book covering just about every aspect of medical related issues in the Civil War. It covers key players in the development of medical affairs while bringing forth quite a bit of information to many subject matters. For example, some of the subject matters consist of Confederate/Union healthcare,development,training,medicine,supply,diseases and surgical procedures on and off of the battlefield. Interesting stories are added to certain areas which enhance the book, plus there is mathematical data to back up the chapters. This book is a must read for those interested in medicine and medical operations during the Civil War. It is a somewhat fast read, though gets to the point and has many pictures and is thoughtfully easy to read.

This subject is often handled too dryly-- with an abundance of stats that ultimately distance the reader from the real horrors of the Civil War. Or, so graphically that the reader is numb from the overwhelming shocking suffering of the era. Freemon managed a perfect balance with this volume. Packed with plenty of little-known information and the author's own perspective, I found it to be well worth the purchase price and my time. Lots of illustrations and anecdotes throughout that illuminate the era as it really was. The author understands the reader's need for occasional comic relief while wading through such horrifically appalling and depressing material. VALUABLE resource and a keeper!! I only wish it were available in hard cover, or at least printed on a higher quality paper.

I am stimulated to write a review by the previous reviewer. He, perhaps, was looking for an explanatory work with chapters on doctors, nurse, hospitals, etc. The present work tells a story, one might say it reads like a novel. The book describes what happens but only with information available to contemporaries. The doctor-reader can try to use his medical knowledge to make a diagnosis. But the work is not just for doctors: it tells the importance of medical care to the war efforts of North and South and tries to argue that the superior medical care of the North was partially responsible for the Union victory. The miserable diseases and horrible wounds (gangrene) show how horrible the war was for participants and balances the rosy picture of the war given by other works (glory). I hope I can be pardoned for giving my own work 5 stars.

This exciting work reads like a novel. It is full of pictures and graphs, but if you read the book from the first page you find that your are engrossed in a story full of vivid descriptions and action.

This book was exactly what I was seeking. The author attempts (with considerable success)to provide the reader with the perspective of the time of the Civil War. Only in the final chapters does he step back and attempt to judge the realative quality of care in the two armies and reflect on the role of medical care in the North's victory over the South. I found the book very scholarly,very interesting and very readable.

This book is interesting and contains some information about Civil War healthcare that was new to me. However, unlike some of the other reviewers, I did find it far too dry. The title of the book and the description here on Amazon.com led me to believe it would be more anecdotal, with stories of men who survived battle wounds only to face another "battle" to survive medical care as it existed at the time. This book does contain a few anecdotes, but it is packed with long lists of dry statistics and technical information that is not as interesting to me as a layperson.

I don't mean this as a wholly negative review, because some people may like the statistical aspect and may really enjoy some of the very specific information presented. But if you are looking for letters, diary entries, personal accounts of the wounded, etc., this may not be what you are looking for.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject of Civil War medicine.

The information in this book was helpful to me up to a point. But my research required much more detail. But a overall good book.

that's just not done, old man, no matter how insecure you are. Very rum. If you're hurt by reviews, then don't read them.
I won't buy and read your book now.