best books on the civil war

inspired by the thread about spielberg's 'lincoln' over on ile, which turned into a mini-discussion of gore vidal's novel. what are your favorites?

i found this one pretty interesting, focused more on the collective psyche of the country during this time and the effect of death (and missing soldiers, destroyed bodies of loved ones, etc.)

http://www.amazon.com/This-Republic-Suffering-American-Vintage/dp/0375703837

Patriotic Gore indirectly. Foner's The Fiery Trial. Grant's Memoirs. The new Grant bio by H.W. Brands.

narrative of the life of frederick douglass
eric foner, reconstruction: the unfinished revolution
w.e.b. dubois, the souls of black folk, in a way

I devoured Catton's books as a kid but I haven't read them in ages.

I've never read Michael Shaara's continuation of his father's work, but 'The Killer Angels' was quite good, I thought, though again, I havn't read it in over 30 years.

i think the best book to read on the months leading up to the war is still david potter's 'lincoln and his party in the secession crisis' -- dry, but great. harold holzer's 'lincoln president-elect' makes a terrific prequel to any book on the war itself. just about to start 'team of rivals.'

I have that backwards, btw, Jeff is Michael's son...

I'd sure like to read Stephanie McCurry's Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (see link to vid of interview w author, in right rail of this page)
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14119/Book+TV+at+the+University+of+Pennsylvania+Stephanie+McCurry+quotConfederate+Reckoning+Power+and+Politics+in+the+Civil++++War+Southquot.aspx

McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom is always a good choice.

yes, 'battle cry' is best overall history i've read. also helped spark ta-nehisi coates's long-running series of awesome posts on the subject.

Another good in-depth interview. Would like to do comparative reading of this and the xp McCurry:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/08/168793872/the-fall-of-the-house-of-dixie-built-a-new-u-s

I think a lot of folks would enjoy - 'The Story of My Campaign: The Civil War Memoir of Captain Francis T. Moore, Second Illinois Cavalry' (full disclosure, the historian who put this together is my brother-in-law). It's an actual field journal of a Union Captain that serves as a memoir of a journey into Confederate territory as war rages all around. The style sticks with the language of the time, and that's entertaining and sometimes challenging. Just to read about terrain and communications challenges will satisfy any armchair historian or civil war buff.

i think the best book to read on the months leading up to the war is still david potter's 'lincoln and his party in the secession crisis' -- dry, but great. harold holzer's 'lincoln president-elect' makes a terrific prequel to any book on the war itself. just about to start 'team of rivals.'

Am enjoying this thoroughly, not least because I miss mid-century jargon-free lucid American English. Has the antebellum conflict ever been summarized so pungently:

The history of the slavery contest was a record of paroxysms arising from territorial rivalry, and of lulls following upon territorial compromise. So invariable was this recurrence that a cycle of slavery agitation had been defined. This cycle always began with the acquisition or opening of new territory. Such an event proved the signal for a conflict between slavery expansionists and exclusionists. As the violence of their contest increased so far as to threaten the security of the country, moderates and Unionists became alarmed and intervened to impose some sort of territorial adjustment, whereupon the excitement diminished and the country lapsed into a period of relative quiet.

mods, plz insert 'american' in thread title

ours is the one

Marcus Rediker on the Amistad Rebellion, and the effect it had on American attitudes about Africans and slavery, when the rebels came ashore--and became culture stars (as well as defendants)
http://www.booktv.org/Watch/14047/quotThe+Amistad+Rebellion+An+Atlantic+Odyssey+of+Slavery+and+Freedomquot.aspx

Also Steven Hahn's The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom

http://www.booktv.org/Watch/14110/Book+TV+at+the+University+of+Pennsylvania+Steven+Hahn+The+Political+Worlds+of+Slavery+and+Freedom.aspx

glad you're reading/enjoying the potter book, alfred -- he's such a sharp writer, and the book is eye-opening about a lot of things, from republican attitudes toward the secessionists (i love all the 'lol those whiners! they won't REALLY secede!' quotes he provides) to the details of seward's machiavellian pre-war shenanigans.

haven't started 'team of rivals' yet, but i got a book on the andrew johnson impeachment for christmas and am thinking of starting that instead -- i've read a couple books on reconstruction but a lot of it is still kind of a blur to me.

also this, Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade

http://www.booktv.org/Watch/13488/Book+TV+at+University+of+Virginia+Maurie+McInnis+Slaves+Waiting+for+Sale+Abolitionist+Art+and+the+American+Slave+Trade.aspx

i feel like i must have linked this before somewhere, but here's tony kushner's list of books he read while researching 'lincoln':

http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/plank/111833/kushner-replies-about-sources