In this elegant book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer explores the manifold ways in which the Civil War changed the United States forever. He confronts its costs, not only human (six hundred thousand men killed) and economic (beyond reckoning) but social and psychological. He touches on popular misconceptions, including some concerning Abraham Lincoln and the issue of slavery. The war in all its facets “grows in our consciousness,” arousing complex emotions and leaving “a gallery of great human images for our contemplation.”
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
"The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner here presents his opinions on how the Civil War shaped modern America," said LJ's reviewer (LJ 5/15/61). Warren is an unbiased observer and in analyzing the causes and effects of the fighting places guilt in both camps. This remains "a timely and valuable book."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Warren brings to this task his critical acuteness as a historian . . . his verbal sensitivity as a novelist, and his insight as a poet."—David Donald, New York Times Book Review
(David Donald New York Times Book Review )"Here is a perfect gem of a book. . . . Here is something sound and meaty about the place of the Civil War in American history and its place in American thinking."—Chicago Sunday Tribune
(Chicago Sunday Tribune )"A brilliant piece of work, quick and sharp with insight, yet compassionate. A stimulating book."—New Yorker
(New Yorker )"A thoughtful discussion . . . stimulating to any reader conscious of the American heritage."—Library Journal
(Library Journal )
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61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The noted poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren wrote several brilliant book-length essays on various subjects, including JEFFERSON DAVIS GETS HIS CITIZENSHIP BACK (which originally appeared in THE NEW YORKER) and INTEGRATION, but none better than this miniature classic of historical interpretation. In 1961, when LIFE magazine asked him for his thoughts on the centennial of the Civil War, he wrote this superb, thoughtful essay (originally subtitled "A Meditation on the Centennial"). In an extraordinarily compressed discussion, Warren notes a dizzying variety of effects that the war and the policies it brought in its wake had on American society. His two most important observations have to do with the ways that the North and the South used the war as alibis. For the victorious North, the war was a "treasury of virtue" that excused generations of corruption, short-sighted public policy, and neglect of national interests; after all, we won the war and freed the slaves. For the defeated South, the war was "the great alibi" that excused every failure to grapple with a region's pressing social and economic problems. Warren never wrote better than in these eloquent pages; this book should be required reading for anyone interested in the Civil War in particular or American history in general. Its reappearance, with a fine introduction by Howard Jones (author of MUTINY ON THE AMISTAD and other excellent histories of the Civil War era), is cause for celebration. -- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School, and Daniel M. Lyons Visiting Professor in American History, Brooklyn College/CUNY (1997-1998)
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Interesting little book, this. Costs next-to nothing and takes almost no time to read. But there's more here than most of the other spurious profundity published these days.
Warren, a Kentuckian whose grandfather fought for the Confederacy during that war, looks at the effects of the war on both North and South. Warren is harsh on the hypocrisy of the North and its "Treasury of Virtue" as he calls it. But he is no Lost Causer; he is equally harsh with the South, with its "Great Alibi." And Warren is scathing with those racists who believed(and still believe)themselves to be the legatees of Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee. An essential book.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As the centennial of the Civil War approached Life magazine asked Robert Penn Warren to write an essay on the impact the war had on America. Warren, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and numerous other prizes accepted. This small book is the essay he wrote in 1961. While Warren never considered himself a historian, he had a lifelong love of history and published a biography on John Brown. His grandfather, who fought for the South while believing in Union, told him about the Civil War and instilled in him a love of history.
This essay is as fresh and new today as it was in 1961. Warren's thoughts on the war, what he calls "The Great Alibi" and the "Treasury of Virtue" are still accurate. This is one of the great essays on the American Civil War, the impact on American history and how it affects us today. The style of writing is interesting, intelligent and very easy to read. You will quickly be caught up in the logic even as you identify current positions and come to understand their historic importance.
This essay is as fresh and new today as it was in 1961. Warren's thoughts on the war, what he calls "The Great Alibi" and the "Treasury of Virtue" are still accurate. This is one of the great essays on the American Civil War, the impact on American history and how it affects us today. The style of writing is interesting, intelligent and very easy to read. You will quickly be caught up in the logic even as you identify current positions and come to understand their historic importance.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Civil War students will be excited to learn aspects of the Civil War which are not generally discussed in history books.
By KG
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Robert Penn Warren was certainly an intellectual that was laying out his view of the war's legacy. I thought it was very instructive. Not an easy or casual read, but a worthwhile one.
1 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Reader
Format:Paperback
It is important that this was first published in 1961, at the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. Its point of view is from that time. It is worth reading, but no longer seems quite original, although perhaps it did at the time. Without dwelling on the reasons for the movement, Warren takes them for granted in his theory of the Great Alibi and Treasury of Virtue. In 1961, he could know nothing of the excesses of the movement, excesses typical of any movement driven by relentless propaganda.
2 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By Betty Burks
Format:Paperback
Robert Penn Warren, a noted Southern writer, is certain that our Civil War shaped modern America, the social institutions which had to take care of the freed slaves, domestic policies, and foreign interests. "The Civil War is our only 'felt' history -- history lived in the national imagination and not just on paper. This is not to say that the War is always, and by all men, felt in the same way. Quite the contrary. But this fact is an index to the very complexity, depth, and fundamental significance of the event. It is an overwhelming and vital image of human, and national, experience."
It taking place so long ago and ended so disastrously with the death of Abraham Lincoln, I really don't believe it caused our failing economy, philosophy, and psychology. Far too many wars, most on foreign lands, have taken place since then to put all the blame on the ressurection of the slaves. "There is no facet of our lives today that does not owe its present character in some measure to the Civil War."
The Confederate Commander in East Tennessee was General James Longstreet. The siege of Knoxville and Battle of Fort Sanders was disastrous for this area. Bridge burners to stop the railroad took place across East Tennessee. The campaign at Strawberry Plains was led by Colonel William P. Sanders, for whom the Fort on the UT campus was named. Bulls Gap, birthplace of Archie Campbell (HeeHaw fame) was pivotal for the northeast, as was Lick Creek Bridge and Blue Springs.
In Middle Tennessee, commandered by Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood, Nathan Bedford Forrest reigned in Columbia, having been born a short distance away in Chapel Hill; Columbia is the birthplace of a U. S.... Read more ›
It taking place so long ago and ended so disastrously with the death of Abraham Lincoln, I really don't believe it caused our failing economy, philosophy, and psychology. Far too many wars, most on foreign lands, have taken place since then to put all the blame on the ressurection of the slaves. "There is no facet of our lives today that does not owe its present character in some measure to the Civil War."
The Confederate Commander in East Tennessee was General James Longstreet. The siege of Knoxville and Battle of Fort Sanders was disastrous for this area. Bridge burners to stop the railroad took place across East Tennessee. The campaign at Strawberry Plains was led by Colonel William P. Sanders, for whom the Fort on the UT campus was named. Bulls Gap, birthplace of Archie Campbell (HeeHaw fame) was pivotal for the northeast, as was Lick Creek Bridge and Blue Springs.
In Middle Tennessee, commandered by Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood, Nathan Bedford Forrest reigned in Columbia, having been born a short distance away in Chapel Hill; Columbia is the birthplace of a U. S.... Read more ›
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