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Don't Know Much About the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...) | 
| Author: Kenneth C. Davis
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 42846
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0380719088
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7
EAN: 9780380719082
ASIN: 0380719088
Publication Date: September 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: used-remainder mark-cover has creases,tears,folds and scratches- book is badly warped and water damaged-pages and page edges are liquid stained-pages are waffling-some pages are creased and torn-cover is stained
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Amazon.com Review
Historian Kenneth C. Davis brings his remarkable ability for making the past vital and entertaining to this in-depth study of the United States' bloodiest conflict. Not content to rehash the one-dimensional accounts that traditional history textbooks have foisted upon students, Davis reexamines with a fresh, critical eye the situations leading up to and the key events that shaped the Civil War. He begins by reaching back to the earliest days of American history to understand the political, economic, and social conditions that allowed a nation founded upon the notion that "all men are created equal" to enslave and degrade 12 million human souls. In his detailed account of the war's battles and political power struggles, he introduces us to the personalities--from Abraham Lincoln, General Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglas to common soldiers and war widows--whose vision, compromises, determination, and powerlessness together made history. Davis also brings to light little-known facts and episodes that for generations were ignored or swept under the rug of the American conscience--including the role of women in the war effort and the massacre of blacks at the hands of Union civilians. All Americans would do well to take a new look at this period of history that "shaped the country's political landscape like the great glaciers had once carved America" because, as Davis explains, its effects linger today. "The Civil War," he says, "remains at the core of our greatest national problem: the great racial divide that grew from slavery." Few programs speak with such intelligence and eloquence about how far the United States has come in terms of what the war taught--and how far it still has to go. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) I--Uma Kukathas/I
Product Description
PWhy did Abraham Lincoln sneak into Washington for his inauguration? was the Gettysburg Address written on the back of an envelope? Where did the Underground Railroad run? Did General Sherman really say, "War is Hell"?/pPIf you can't answer these questions, you're not alone. Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events - Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shilohand Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and much more. Drawing on moving eyewitness accounts, Davis includes a wealth of "hidden history" about the roles played by women and African Americans before and during the war, along with lesser-known facts that will enthrall even learned Civil War buffs. Vivid, informative, and hugely entertaining, bDon't Know Much About the Civil War/b is the only book you'll ever need on "the war that never ended."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 "Don't Know Much About..." Series is Excellent! September 27, 2008
I've read all of the books in the "Don't Know Much About.." series. If you're interested in getting a rather thorough overview without becoming an expert, these books are for you. They are so easy to read, that I couldn't but them down.
A surprising, surprisingly great ACW/WBTS reference! August 13, 2008
I have been reading about the American Civil War since the Centennial of that bloody conflict, in 1960. And when you're talking about the period of American history about so much has been written, I guess I have to say I've only read through enough books to fill a small apartment by now. br /br /But Mr. Davis' book, which I picked up on a whim, has proven to be the most accessible, most entertaining, most crammed with facts, speeches, articles, letters, and references to follow up Civil War book I've read in the past ten years. I'd rate it as invaluable to anyone who wants to begin their own study of the Civil War years, and of the American history that preceded, and led to the War. The huge figures of American history are here, sure, but so are a wonderful collection of lesser lights, heroes, victims and villains... on all sides of the question. br /br /In fact, in reading the sections of this book that predate the War, I learned more about those eras than I did back when I was taking a minor in History in college, more than I'd learned throughout my schooling, in fact. br /And to be entertained, to enjoy myself while I learned all those things like who helped Daniel Webster write the last part of his most famous speech ever, was something I frankly did not expect from a Civil War reference title. But the author delivered a book I was engrossed in from the first page to the last, while never bored and often amazed. br /br /I'd strongly, strongly suggest this book to almost anyone with an interest in the Civil War except maybe the academicians and 50+ year Civil War buffs who've read, researched and written their own tomes by now, anyway.
 Fails to Prove its Thesis November 16, 2006
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I was in high school, we were assigned to write a paper on the causes of the Civil War. I think of the 30 people in my class, 29 wrote their papers on slavery; I wrote mine on state's rights. I focussed on the threats to the Union encountered by Andrew Jackson. When this book began with the thesis that the Civil War was caused primarily and perhaps exclusively by slavery, I was willing to let the author make his case. After completing the book, I am not convinced. The South was vanquished, slavery abolished, and 140 years later the South is still almost diametrically opposed politically to the North. Look at the results of the last two presidencial elections. Slavery is gone and all of the state's rights issues are still there. The South is as anti-Federal now as they were before the Civil War. It was this difference in basic philosophy that led to the war, slavery made the differences more noticeable.
 Don't know mcuh about the civil war August 10, 2006
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was looking for verification of facts, like who was behind Lincoln's assassination, but this work didn't satisfy that curiosity, yet I learned much, since I didn't do American history in school.
Entertaining, but somewhat Shallow July 6, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I listened to this book on tape and enjoyed it overall. I confess, I had some issues as I listened to the book as I am apparently in that class of people who actually does enjoy and study history. I found the anecdotes entertaining and overall found the book appropriate for its purpose as a primer for a majority of the populace who apparently doesn't have even a cursory grasp of the keystone event in American History. It does have a tendency however to oversimplify some of the issues in an apparent effort to create a framework to understand not only the events, but their socio-economic-political implications.br /br /You have only to read the other reviews of this work for evidence that many of the philosophical and political battles of the civil war are still being fought in American Society.br /br /Most criticism of this work seems to be directed at Davis' contention that slavery was the issue of the Civil War. Davis does go to great lengths to make this point. It is by no means a slam dunk as there are many reputable historians who downplay this claim as an over-simplification.br /br /However, Davis is not writing this book as a competitor or replacement for the weighty works of academia that address this question. Davis is writing to a more general audience that he appears to perceive as attempting to sluff over or bypass this issue from the civil way, perhaps in some effort to minimize or bypass the issues of racism and civil rights inequities today. br /br /In those terms, Davis seems to be going to great lengths to address the issue in order to convince them that:br /br /1. Slavery is not a new issue.br /2. Slavery was integrally entwined within many of the issues cited then and since for the Civil War.br /br /States rights were an issue? Of course they were! What were the states primarily asserting their rights to control that they believed the North and then Lincoln were threatening? Slavery was primary in this regard.br /br /Were taxes and tariffs tied into the argument. Yes it was. What were the taxes and tariffs centered around? Issues related to the agricultural South and the industrial North who preferred to see these applied to the others and not themselves. What drove the southern agricultural system and undergirded it in the context of the times? Was it state's rights? Yes, but primarily as those state's rights applied to slavery!br /br /Are detractors correct when they claim that many who fought the war from the North were equally racist and had no real desire to benefit negro slaves? Yes, that is undeniably true. Were there many who fought on the Southern side who did not own slaves and would have been just as happy to see slavery ended? Absolutely.br /br /The truth of the matter is, however, that slavery as a political issue was inextrably in the weave of all the issues leading up to Lincoln's election and succession.br /br /In this regard, maybe Davis is overstating and oversimplifying things from the point of view of anyone who is already familiar with the events of and surrounding the civil war. The point to be made, is perhaps he needs to do this with his intended audience of neophytes and newcomers who need to be slapped in the face with it to dispel the opposite error which seems to have diminished the role of slavery and then civil rights development within the US.br /br /That said, if you have questions after reading or listening to this book, then you'll at least have a platform from which to do further research.br /br /So, I recommend this book. It does what it sets out to do which is to introduce people with little or no historical background not only into the events of the Civil War, but the political and societal context of it.br /br /In order to do that you have to take a stand and make a case for what you are saying. Like it or not; agree with it or not; Davis does just that and he does a credible job.br /br /Those criticizing it on that basis are beyond the purpose of the book and for whatever reasons still fighting the original battles. br /br /Better here than on the battlefield!br /br /Read it. Learn. Then move on and question the premises in additional reading after this fine introduction.
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