Scan barcode
betsychadwell's review
4.0
This was an excellent history of the American Civil War. Although long, it was full of interesting detail and analysis of the forces that resulted in the war and influenced it's conduct. It also helped me to understand the reconstruction period better than I ever have before.
Goldfield writes well. He seemed to alternate between detailed events and anecdotes and description of the reasons and effects of the occurrences. He also sometimes moved backward and forward in time in order to keep discussion of different major threads together (e.g. the Native American wars that were going on at almost the same time). He covered all the major players, but did not concentrate too much on any one person. Even Lincoln was handled in a very balanced way -- neither idolized nor vilified.
Of particular interest to me were all the parallels between that period of time and our own, although the author did not specifically call them out.
His central thesis -- that the United States did not truly become a nation unto itself until after the Civil War and may not have survived without it -- was fairly well established.
I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in U.S. history.
Goldfield writes well. He seemed to alternate between detailed events and anecdotes and description of the reasons and effects of the occurrences. He also sometimes moved backward and forward in time in order to keep discussion of different major threads together (e.g. the Native American wars that were going on at almost the same time). He covered all the major players, but did not concentrate too much on any one person. Even Lincoln was handled in a very balanced way -- neither idolized nor vilified.
Of particular interest to me were all the parallels between that period of time and our own, although the author did not specifically call them out.
His central thesis -- that the United States did not truly become a nation unto itself until after the Civil War and may not have survived without it -- was fairly well established.
I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in U.S. history.
librarianonparade's review
4.0
This book is billed as a major new interpretation of the Civil War, but to be honest I'm not sure how 'new' an interpretation it really is. It focuses more heavily on the evangelical religious impulses interwoven through antebellum America society than perhaps other histories have done, and certainly those religious revivals played a more important role than has hitherto been acknowledged, but I'm not sure that entirely qualifies as a whole new interpretation of the War.
Goldfield's central thesis is that the rise of evangelical religion and its intrusion into politics is largely what led to the schism between North and South. When both sides believe their culture, way of life and beliefs to be not just preferable, not just right, but divinely sanctified, compromise is inevitably all but impossible. To the North, slavery was not just wrong, but evil. To the South, their way of life, slavery and all, was a divine blessing and the slave's role part of the natural order ordained by God. Once God starts to be invoked, conflict is usually inevitable, as the stakes become so much greater than simple politics or economics. In support of this argument, Goldfield connects the evangelical impulses to the strong anti-Catholicism of the time that infused other major political issues of the day such as anti-immigration and nativism.
It's a fine theory, and one I can well believe. He writes well in support of it, and this is an excellent examination of antebellum America from the 1830s onwards, quite apart from this new angle in the causes of the conflict. The book loses a little steam during the post-war narrative where his narrative deviates somewhat from the central thesis - if Civil War America was a direct result of these evangelical impulses, post-war America was a result of, well, the War and the religious angle loses focus. So a fine book and an excellent addition to any Civil War library, but perhaps not quite a ground-breaking as the publicists would have you believe.
Goldfield's central thesis is that the rise of evangelical religion and its intrusion into politics is largely what led to the schism between North and South. When both sides believe their culture, way of life and beliefs to be not just preferable, not just right, but divinely sanctified, compromise is inevitably all but impossible. To the North, slavery was not just wrong, but evil. To the South, their way of life, slavery and all, was a divine blessing and the slave's role part of the natural order ordained by God. Once God starts to be invoked, conflict is usually inevitable, as the stakes become so much greater than simple politics or economics. In support of this argument, Goldfield connects the evangelical impulses to the strong anti-Catholicism of the time that infused other major political issues of the day such as anti-immigration and nativism.
It's a fine theory, and one I can well believe. He writes well in support of it, and this is an excellent examination of antebellum America from the 1830s onwards, quite apart from this new angle in the causes of the conflict. The book loses a little steam during the post-war narrative where his narrative deviates somewhat from the central thesis - if Civil War America was a direct result of these evangelical impulses, post-war America was a result of, well, the War and the religious angle loses focus. So a fine book and an excellent addition to any Civil War library, but perhaps not quite a ground-breaking as the publicists would have you believe.
More...