Customer Reviews

The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln's War

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This is the third volume (of a projected four, each devoted to a separate year) in William Marvel's history of the Civil War from the Union perspective. Marvel's history is unlike any other. This is no exercise in re-evaluation of Union or Confederate strategy or an attempt to understand why the Union prevailed or the South lost. Marvel portrays the war as a great tragedy, one that the antagonists are increasingly reluctant to continue, and his impressive research is evocative of the actual thoughts and feelings of the time, both among the troops and at home. Even well-read Civil War enthusiasts will learn much from this book.

Having read William Marvel's previous books on Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Civil War, I had a great deal of high expectations regarding this book. Sadly, I found it greatly lacking in a number of ways and a poor follow on to the previous works. For one thing, the book lacks the insightful commentary of his previous works and the sharp almost laser like focus he brought to his work. The Great Task Remaining meanders all over the place and it is really hard to tell where one story begins and another ends.

The writing left a great deal to be desired as did the structure of the book. Trivial contests that have rightfully been consigned to the ash bin of history are given greater play than the Battle's of Gettysburg and Vicksburg combined. The impact of the Emancipation Proclamation is portrayed as entirely negative, when it is mentioned at all. All in all this was not a good follow up to his previous books.

I will say in the positive that the elements were there for this to be a wonderful follow up. He had the same great style of using soldiers correspondence and portraying the war as much from their perspective as that of the generals. Marvel is to be commended for trying to show the anger and desperation of the soldiers with the government as well as the fouled up bounties paid and even worse conscription act. Sadly, he completely ignores the Confederate side except when he has to mention them.

All in all this is not a good book by most measures. I would strongly recommend passing on this one and hopefully he will learn the lesson from this book and write a better history of the War's final year.

William Marvel is a respected historian, an excellent author who has produced some very good books. This is not one of his good books and could be the worst book he will write. The first line inside the dust jacket states "Revisionist history at its' best". This large and disjointed book makes every effort to exceed that sentence. This leads to social history being pushed forward at the expense of political and military history.

The thoughts and actions of Grant, Lincoln, Davis and Lee are less important than privates and civilians. Marvel takes a harsh view of the war in which the glass is always half empty. There is little analysis of campaigns or the positive things that are occurring for the North.

Being an excellent author, his ideas are very convincing and his positions seem logical. The problem being what he says is often questionable if not wrong. In a wish to write a "Revisionist history", Marvel has produced very little of value.

Author Marvel has done a tremendous job in breaking down the Civil War year by year. This is his third book. I hope he writes many more even when he completes the yearly breakdown.

He writes in a style that is engrossing. You are not overwhelmed by the wave of date and info sent your way. He makes history come alive.