Customer Reviews

A Ruined Land: The End of the Civil War

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

 

 

It is said that there are more books written about the Civil War than almost any other subject, so it might seem diffficult, if not impossible, to come up with anything new to say about the Civil War. But I found this book not only to have some new things to reveal about the war and its aftermath but, equally notable, to say things in a way that few books on any topic of American history have achieved. On the one hand, it deals with a narrow timeframe and topic--the actions of a relatively small selection of individuals in the closing months of the war and then in the two years following the end of the war (although a "coda" tells us what these individuals did in the years that followed). By focusing on this relatively small group of people, the author is able to capture and convey with precise detail and feelings the impact of the war on Americans of all kinds--Black and white, Northerners and Southerners, military and civilian, female and male, young and old, rich and poor. And he does this by relying virtually 100% on the actual accounts of the individuals and those engaged in the same actions--their diaries and journals and letters and memoirs (in the case of those who did set down more seasoned accounts). As a result, the reader gets to experience these events with an immediacy that few books about the Civil War convey. You feel you are at the battles, you are at the plantations, you are at the schools and churches, you are advancing or retreating with the troops, you are in the camps with the soldiers and in the homes with the families. And all the time, with little or no "preaching" by the author, you are made to feel the horrors of the battlefields, the cruelties visited upon soldiers and slaves and former slaves, the sufferings experienced by the families at home. All of this is conveyed, as I say, by drawing upon firsthand accounts, woven together in an intricate, subtle, and fluid narrative. I might just say that one reviewer complains that we do not hear enough of the voices of African Americans but this gives a totally false impression: African Americans are present from the very first page on, both as named individuals and as nameless groupings; few books, in fact, except those that focus specifically on the role of African Americans in this period, manage to convey the totally and inextricably shared fates of whites and blacks in shaping America's history. Indeed, the work reads more like a novel than the usual "four-square" history book. I can think of no other relevant comparison, in fact, than Tolstoy's War and Peace, with its similar range of characters and scenes and activities. For this reason, I should say that it is not always easy going--at least at the outset, before we readers have all the "characters" under control and gradually realize that we are going to be constantly returning to them. (When in doubt, however, turn to the "cast of characters" the author has provided at the front.) But it repays your attention, and soon you are drawn into this world that the author has rescued and recreated. To conclude with a musical analogy: where most books about the Civil War, even the best of them, end up sounding like Sousa, this one is a work by Beethoven!

With so many books on the Civil War, I thought this sounded like a novel idea: describe, from primary, first-person sources, what it was like at the very end. The author, Michael Golay, does an admirable job of "personalizing" the story. Knowing the scope of the topic, he chooses a few people in a few locations and tells us their stories. And he does it with a prose that is all-to-lacking with most books on the Civil War. (Nowhere will you read, for example, "Jackson brought his division up and smashed into Hancock's left." That's about as bad as it gets, and Golay includes little or nothing like that.) Consequently, we feel as if we're there: we soar with the New England abolitionists who dedicated their lives to making life better on the Sea Islands; our hopes sink with their betrayal by racism and the federal government; we suffer with the innocent as well as with the guilty; and we almost hear the snap of the ropes as the Lincoln-assassination "conspirators" drop.

But that is the problem: Golay cannot decide whether this is "big history" or "little history," and as a consequence, we get both. He leaves and returns to characters so often--and has the irritating habit of so often referring to them by first name--that I found myself constantly reviewing the index to inquire, "Now, who is this person?" Sherman's story has been told; Booth's story has been told; Lee's surrender to Grant has been told. This book would have been much more effective had Golay stayed exclusively with what really worked: the up-close-and-personal stories of ordinary people whose lives were turned upside down. He need not have told them all, or in all places, because the experiences were similar everywhere.

Still, I recommend this book as an antidote for what is wrong with so much writing about the Civil War. It's balanced; it's personal; it's compelling. It could have been so much better.

Very disappointing treatment of an interesting topic. Focus on a small number of characters, a few points in time and a small geographic region make the reader wonder how general is the author's account. Add to this that the prose is pretty uninteresting and you have the makings of one of the worst (of many) Civil War history books I've read in the last 2 years.

Haven't had time to read much of it yet, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Golay's better than that 2.5 star rating gives him credit for.

this book is plum terrible. lacks focus, lacks character. would rather discuss the north than the destruction of the south. the south was gallant. there is none of that here. military account are boring. i want feeling. i want heart. this book does nothing for me. talk about how the south was ruined, not the northerners looking down on the south after the war.

only southerners should write books about the south. no one else can talk accurately on the subject.