Explore the Epic Conflict of the American Civil War with 'Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'

Uwe Ohlrogge: It has been pleasure reading. one of the best history books I ever read--phantastic!

Germany on Mar 02, 2024

Liam Kelleher: Trawling through the masses of Civil War books, it became difficult to choose one alone. I finally settled on Battle Cry For Freedom by James McPherson and am entirely satisfied with the book - it is a brilliant summation of the economic, political and military details before and during the war.

The first 300 pages of the book are the best in my opinion, where McPherson draws a magnificent line between the end of the Mexican War in 1848 and the first shots of the Civil War (some papers referenced as early as 1851 "first shots of Civil War at Christiana"). McPherson makes the excellent point that the expansion of the "Union" south and westwards swallowed up new slave states. "Mexico will poison us". That swing the balance towards a Union where there were more slave states than non.

The rise of the Lincoln and the newly formed Republican Party put the south on edge, with their principles, rather than policies, of being anti-slavery. States wanted to secede from the Union and not be beholden to the whims of Washington DC. McPherson tries to be sympathetic to the Confederate view that the war was not about slavery but rather freedom (indeed one must ask the question if...

United Kingdom on Apr 26, 2022

Asanu: Lectura necesaria para comprender la historia de EEUU.Muy bien escrito y a un precio muy asequible

Spain on Jul 21, 2019

Robert Obbard: Really covers all the angles from the horrors of slavery, through the politics, battles, the role of women, economics, technological innovations and far more. A really gripping story, well told.

France on Oct 13, 2018

Eugenio Marogna: One of the best book to fully understand the reasons behind such a cruel and long war.
Professor McPherson explains covering a lot of topics, deepening all the various aspects.

Italy on Aug 28, 2017

gloine36: This volume of the Oxford History of the United States came out in 1988 and was the second volume to be published in the series. James McPherson, George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University, won a Pulitzer Prize for penning this outstanding contribution to American Civil War history. At the time of its release, Battle Cry was immediately acclaimed at the definitive one volume work on the Civil War. McPherson, a lifelong student of the Civil War, managed to compile an outstanding overview of the lead up to the conflict as well as what happened during the war in 900 pages. The downside was that it was only an overview, not a detailed in depth series of volumes on every aspect of the war. Of course, that project would be one in which several historians, specialists in researching various aspects of the Civil War, would rival any history of the war to this date.

There are two major problems with this work. One is that as an entry in the Oxford History series it focuses almost exclusively on the Civil War itself. It does not cover other aspects of American history from 1848 to 1865 except as they relate to the central conflict. Yes, the conflict...

United States on Jul 11, 2013

Digital Rights: In the 150th anniversary of the start of the US Civil War I've continued to read on the topic with great interest. BATTLE CRY of FREEDOM has been recommended to me so many times and I truly truly regret not reading it sooner.

The near 1000 page masterpiece by James McPherson delivers a comprehensive, thoroughly researched, well reasoned and gripping story of the American Civil War. The book begins with the struggle in the US since the revolution to fit the contraction of slavery within a shared vision of freedom and representative government which anchors much of what America builds from.

The first, middle and last discussion centers of course on slavery. McPherson shows how opinions hardened and changed often violently in the 60 years since the Constitution to the 1850's. While Jefferson, Madison, Mason and Washington all owned slaves they all spoke or wrote of their desire to restrict it and hopes that it would soon, somehow disappear. But by the outbreak of the Civil War slave holding states saw virtue in themselves, Manifest Destiny was coined by southerns looking to expand slavery westward. Fillibustering meant invading weakened, poorer countries with the intent...

United States on Dec 03, 2011