Product Description

For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name. Now Keegan examines these and other puzzles with a peerless understanding of warfare, uncovering dimensions of the conflict that have eluded earlier historiography.

While offering original and perceptive insights into psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics, Keegan reveals the war’s hidden shape—a consequence of leadership, the evolution of strategic logic, and, above all, geography, the Rosetta Stone of his legendary decipherments of all great battles. The American topography, Keegan argues, presented a battle space of complexity and challenges virtually unmatched before or since. Out of a succession of mythic but chaotic engagements, he weaves an irresistible narrative illuminated with comparisons to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and other conflicts.

The American Civil War is sure to be hailed as a definitive account of its eternally fascinating subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3592 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-20
• Released on: 2009-10-20
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307263438
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
American scholars tend to write the Civil War as a great national epic, but Keegan (The First World War), an Englishman with a matchless knowledge of comparative military history, approaches it as a choice specimen with fascinating oddities. His more thematic treatment has its shortcomings—his campaign and battle narratives can be cursory and ill-paced—but it pays off in far-ranging discussions of broader features: the North's strategic challenge in trying to subdue a vast Confederacy ringed by formidable natural obstacles and lacking in significant military targets; the importance of generalship; the unusual frequency of bloody yet indecisive battles; and the fierceness with which soldiers fought their countrymen for largely ideological motives. Keegan soars above the conflict to delineate its contours, occasionally swooping low to expand on a telling detail or a moment of valor or pathos. Some of his thoughts, as on the unique femininity of Southern women and how the Civil War stymied socialism in America, are less than cogent. Still, Keegan's elegant prose and breadth of learning make this a stimulating, if idiosyncratic, interpretation of the war. 16 pages of photos, 12 maps. (Oct. 21)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
In his broad, single-volume history, Keegan offers an outsider's view of the American Civil War, providing fresh insights from a bracingly impartial perspective. However, though critics were quick to voice their admiration for Keegan's previous works, they were deeply disappointed by The American Civil War. His narrative is lamentably riddled with inaccuracies, including the dates, locations, and events of major battles. He incorrectly attributes well-known quotes, presents disproved myths as facts, and repeatedly contradicts himself. Critics also bemoaned the brevity of the book, which muddled the repetitive descriptions of battles and troop movements, and Keegan's obscure asides. "He's loath to leave any of his erudition off the table," opines the New York Times. Critics expected more from this eminent historian, and readers may be similarly disappointed.

Review
Acclaim for John Keegan's THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

“[A]ssiduously researched and comprehensive…Keegan gives us a vivid, panoramic overview of dynamic, mid-19th century America…. Besides providing an insightful description of the more urban, industrial North and the slaveholding, agricultural South, Keegan takes us on an authoritative grand tour of Civil War battles…. He has walked these killing grounds [which] he clearly and knowingly describes…. Keegan pays close attention to the geography and logistics of battles and how they related to grand military strategy….Aside from the cinematic battle descriptions, Keegan delves deeply into the psychological makeup of the leading generals…. he is able to examine American history more objectively and with insights that might elude an American historian.…Written for the general reader, The American Civil War is a wonderfully concise, comprehensive and insightful work. It is also heartfelt history.”
            Chris Patsilelis, Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Keegan takes the long view of [the Civil War], putting it into broad historical context amid history’s great conflicts, from the Napoleonic wars and World War I to Vietnam.”
            Dwight Garner, New York Times 

“[Keegan] applies his outstanding grasp on the nature of human conflict to offer a fresh evaluation of the American Civil War….Among the numerous areas he explores are psychology, ideology, and demographics, but most tellingly, the role of geography in the unfolding course of the war.”
            Nicholas Basbanes, Fine Books Magazine
 
“[T]houghtful, incisive, and so much more than repetitious accounts of which regiment went where…. From the first paragraph it is evident that this is a thoughtful work…. [Keegan] breaks down the elements of battle in the war, noting the unusual fact that they were so frequent compared to other wars of the time, and so intense, and ponders how a single democratic society could produce such a ferocious intensity of war against itself….cogent, well-argued and insightful book, which approaches so much of the story from a vantage different than that of most of our Civil War scholarship.”
            William C. Davis, The Military Book Club
 
“[In t]his sophisticated survey….Keegan places battle strategy at the core of his narrative but does not get mired in the sandbox of the mechanics of war. His balanced interpretation illuminates changes shaped by combat, but his analysis moves beyond battlefield outcomes….With fluid assurance Keegan distils the challenging literature that has made the Civil War one of the 19th century’s most popular subjects [and] weaves together America’s rebirth of freedom with the transformative powers of a war that turned home guards into warriors when citizen soldiers replaced professional combatants…. Keegan’s encyclopaedic knowledge pays rich dividends, as he invokes examples, from Waterloo to the Somme, from Sherlock Holmes to Churchill [while his] asides offer fresh insight…. The precision and punch of Keegan’s narrative will please a broad audience.”
            Catherine Clinton, BBC History Magazine

“Keegan’s observations on the human and logistic factors are fascinating [and] contain the essence of what made the war different. Keegan’s lifelong study of war and engagement with American history from his earliest years endow his prose with a majesty of judgment….it is hard to see how Keegan’s masterful and thought-provoking book could be beaten.”
           Allan Mallinson, The Times (London)

“Instead of adding to the pile of chronicles of the American Civil War, [Keegan] has written a critique of them, from the point of view of a deep-thinking, distinguished military historian [with] penetrating insight, a trenchant style and unexpected angles of approach….a delightful conceit, elegantly executed….The emphasis on geography is…most original….full of unexpected treasures….All Civil War buffs will enjoy this study and learn something from it.”
            Hugh Brogan, Telegraph (London)

“One of our finest military historians, Keegan brings a shrewd and discerning eye to [the Civil War]…. [Keegan’s] grasp of how the generals wrested to formulate grand strategy in a context of evolving resources, an uncertain appreciation of topography in the absence of good maps, and definitive developments on the battlefield [exemplify his] commanding grasp of warfare in the modern era. The American Civil War derives much of its freshness from the author’s broad perspective across time and place.”
            Richard Carwardine, Literary Review
 
“Sir John’s achievement is to bring an international perspective….As well as looking back at European influences, Sir John looks forward to how the civil war changed European warfare.”
            Economist
 
“one of the world’s most eminent military historians….[presents] a new overview of what can truly be regarded as the first modern war….In its range and sweep, this book is difficult to better and promises to become the definitive account of the conflict from this side of the Atlantic.”
            John Crossland, Daily Mail
 
“[The] leading military historian of the English-speaking world….has now turned this hand to writing a comprehensive military history of the American Civil War….rich and nutritious book….fascinating….excellent portraits of all the principal commanders on both sides….every page of this book is incisive and readable. Even American experts on this terrible and absorbing conflict will learn much from Keegan’s account of it.”
            Paul Johnson, Standpoint
  
“a captivating narrative, huge in scope.”
            Elizabeth Grice, Telegraph

“engaging….The master of military history [writes] a highly readable overview of the war that goes far beyond merely describing who fought where. Through Keegan’s book, one gains an understanding of why the battles happened as they did, where they did, and how they fit into the whole story of the war and its resulting influence on our nation. Both the casual reader and the Civil War buff will find much to appreciate in this excellent work.”
            Bookpage

“Keegan brings his enormous talents for understanding the ‘face of battle’….follow[ing] such writers as T. Harry Williams and James McPherson in assessing generalship….His emphasis on the role of military training, geography, the importance of entrenchments, the use of firepower and infantry tactics, and the technology of war gives Keegan’s book a primary place in the annals of modern warfare….the single best one-volume assessment of the military character and conduct of America’s ordeal by fire….Highly recommended.”
            Randall Miller, Library Journal

“Keegan, an Englishman with a matchless knowledge of comparative military history, approaches [the Civil War] as a choice specimen with fascinating oddities. His more thematic treatment [allows for] far-ranging discussions of broader features. Keegan soars above the conflict to delineate its contours, occasionally swooping low to expand on a telling detail or moment of valor or pathos. Keegan’s elegant prose and breadth of learning make this a stimulating…interpretation of the war.”
            Publisher’s Weekly
 
“A premier military historian….[Keegan’s] acuity about the war’s myriad aspects, encompassing dramatic battles, appalling costs, and decisive historical results [create a] fascinating analytical narrative.”
            Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

“A solid history of the Civil War by the grand master of military writing….a shrewd portrait of mid-19th-century America and the background to the war. Keegan stresses big-picture issues of politics, diplomacy, strategy and daily life, so history buffs who skim the battle scenes will still have plenty of rich insights to contemplate. Though he is no revisionist, the author delivers a few jolts….no reader should pass up the chance to read Keegan.”
            Kirkus

Customer Reviews

Weak offering from a normally stellar military historian
I'm a big John Keegan fan. I'm also a serious reader of Civil War history. On both counts I'm very disappointed in this book. Keegan is usually an insightful historian and a solid writer. This book falls short in both areas. I can't recommend the book even for serious Civil War buffs as, at best, there's nothing new here. The book has annoying factual errors (doesn't anyone fact check anything anymore?) and is very poorly edited to the point that it's almost incoherent in several sections.

The factual errors tend to be related to details, e.g. on page 321 Keegan states that Winfield Scott was 85 years old at the beginning of the war while Scott's actual age was 75 or on page 218 the Confederates are described as making preparations to escape from besieged Vicksburg by crossing to the "eastern shore" where in fact Vicksburg was on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River. This doesn't distract necessarily from Keegan's larger point but it's highly distracting to any reader who has background in the period. These types of factual errors are scattered throughout the book and their accumulation eventually undercuts belief in the larger picture that Keegan attempts to paint.

But even more seriously the book is almost unreadable in a number of sections. The quality of the editing in this book is nothing short of appalling. There are serious problems with continuity throughout the book. There is significant repetition in the book. These problems seems to occur much more frequently in the sections describing the war in the "west" (i.e. Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama). It is literally impossible to read the sections on Chickamauga or Hood's Nashville campaign and not get seriously confused and misled regarding what actually happened relative to who did what, in what sequence, etc. When poor editing leads to creating factual confusion, as in the discussion of the end of the siege at Vicksburg when we have the Confederate General Bowen seemingly described as a subordinate ("his emissary") of Union commander Grant, the results should be embarrassing to a publisher like Knopf and an author like Keegan.

There are many good single volume treatments of the American Civil War. This is unfortunately not one of them.

Should be approached with caution; many errors
I'm a big fan of John Keegan. I first read The Face of Battle in the late '70s, soon after it was published. It convinced me he was going to be one of the more important historians of the last part of the century, and for the most part that's proven correct. He has since produced a large library of interesting, intelligent books, the content of which has been interesting. I can't say I agree with everything the author writes and advocates, but I can say that he's generally thought-provoking and intelligent. Which is why the current book is such a disappointment.

The American Civil War is perhaps one of the more written-about wars in world history. This is, of course, because the market for American history is so large, because there are so many Americans. It's also got something to do, I suspect, with the size of the conflict and its course. There's a tradition of foreign interest in the war (the current standard history of the Confederate Navy was written by an Italian historian, and then translated into English) and British historians have especially been fascinated by it. One of the older biographies of Stonewall Jackson was written by a British soldier, G.F.R. Henderson, in the late 19th Century, and early in the 20th J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddel Hart wrote extensively about the war from various perspectives. Liddel Hart's biography of Sherman still has some followers; he made some good points.

Keegan has written about the American Civil War in the past. In his partially autobiographical book Fields of Battle, he recounts that he first came to America as a grad student with a grant to study the Battlefields of the American Civil War, what has to be 50 years ago or so. Knowing this, you'd imagine that the author would have a good knowledge of the conflict and the characters involved in it, and that he'd provide a good thorough history of the war. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Some of his general discussion of the war is interesting, and has insight, but the narrative is so confusing and riddled with errors you have to wonder how he came to the correct conclusions.

The book begins with a series of topical chapters, describing the events leading up to the war, and describing such things as American geography and the state of the Republic at the time of the war. These chapters are *generally* better than the narrative ones that follow, though the one on geography contains a few errors. Once we get to the account of the war however, things begin to deteriorate.

I actually went to the trouble of taking notes, writing down things I saw that were errors in the book. I kept this up for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the effort and stopped. When I stopped I had a page of tightly-written shorthand notes discussing everything from the sequence of events in the Valley campaign to Keegan omitting that Stuart got lost before Gettysburg. Most of the author's conclusions about the battles, campaigns, and characters would be sustainable with a factual history of the war, but the errors detract from the narrative. One blight on the conclusions page: the author seems to fall into the Paddy Griffith school of Civil War history. For those who aren't aware, Griffith is British, and he writes on 19th century infantry tactics. He's been rather controversial since his book on the American Civil War, which puts forward the opinion that the influence of rifles on Civil War battles has been greatly exaggerated, and that the battles were essentially still Napoleonic contests. I've never agreed with much of what Griffith wrote, and I was sorry to see his book in Keegan's rather slim bibliography.

There's also the issue of the writing style. All the negative reviews have noted that the book is repetitive, and often the repetitions aren't needed for the narrative to make sense. Occasionally a sequence of events will be recounted, erroneously, and then repeated correctly. I have another criticism, one that's a bit stranger. Keegan is British, and they have their own writing style, generally. It tends to be wordier, and your average Brit has to be edited pretty carefully (or so it seems to me) to avoid prose so dense it can't be penetrated. While he's a skilled writer, Keegan's prose here tends to run on and on and on. Some of the paragraphs are seemingly endless, and there's often no real reason for this. It's as if he got popular and powerful enough that no one dared edit his prose, when it was actually very neccessary. It's also fascinating that no one thought to have someone else look over the manuscript, and comment on what he wrote. If anyone did, they either didn't notice the errors or were ignored.

In addition to everything else, the illustrations occasionally leave something to be desired. The photograph of Jefferson Davis, if it's him, is from very late in his life. Davis was famously tall, spare, and had high cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and a small imperial under his chin, no mustache. The person in the picture is older, much older than Davis was during the war, and has a full beard and mustache, all snowy white. Also, there's a photograph of the C.S.S. Stonewall, with a caption describing her as something along the line of a typical Confederate river ironclad. As any Civil War naval buff will tell you, the Stonewall was pretty much unique, being the only Confederate warship I'm aware of with a turret, and the only ironclad one to cross the Atlantic. She also never sailed on an American river. As an aside, the maps aren't perfect either; the Gettysburg 3rd day map has the XII Corps lead by someone named "Ruge". This is probably Thomas Ruger, who was a division commander and may have led the unit for a day or two while Slocum was commanding the right wing, but why confuse the map by putting the man's name (misspelled) next to the unit? He's not in the narrative of the battle at all; for that matter Slocum's only very briefly mentioned.

I really wanted to like this book, and frankly was surprised by the poor scholarship underlying much of what's in the narrative of the war. Someone should go through this book and carefully edit every portion of the text before it's reissued as a paperback. You'll notice I said *should*. I seriously doubt the publisher will bother.

A unique history of the American Civil War from a British viewpoint
John Keegan needs no introduction to followers of military history, with some 19 books to his credit.

Keegan brings the perspective of an English military historian to the American Civil War, which does lend this history a rather unique flavor. One surprising element is the number of mostly small errors in the book. Some are inexplicable, such as mistakenly attributing desegregation of the American military to Dwight Eisenhower. In fact, it was his predecessor, President Harry Truman, who first ordered desegregation of the military. Eisenhower did pursue the issue during his Presidency as well as enforcing the Supreme Court's decision. In short, Keegan was partially correct in a way, but wrong on the major point. Keegan also errs in the combat deaths of the Civil War and American combat deaths in WWII. These are small errors, to be sure, but one wonders how they made it through both the writing and editing process.

There isn't much that hasn't been already said about the day-to-day history of the Civil War and most of the first 15 chapters are a retelling of what is already familiar to most military buffs. There is the occasional insight that only a historian of Keegan's caliber would recognize, but for the most part, it is well-trod territory. Keegan uses a number of British terms and colloquialisms which occasionally slow down the reader, but again this is not a major issue.

In the first 250 pages or so, Keegan pretty well lays out all the major aspects of the American Civil War.

In the last chapters, about 70 pages, Keegan comes fully into his own as he did in "The Face Of Battle". Here Keegan examines why the soldiers on both sides kept fighting despite casualty rates running around 30%. He points out the differences between the Civil War and all the wars before it, which is a fascinating exposition. His discussion of the strategy - or lack thereof - on the parts of North and South is among the very best I've seen. One of his points which I've never seen addressed in quite the same way is that the Civil War was a war of almost continuous battles, about 10,000 of them. This marked a significant departure from the Napoleonic doctrine of the time that sought great battle that would end the war.

Keegan also points out that the Civil War was the most important ideological war in history and his discussion is quite illuminating.

Overall, the last six chapters take a pretty good history and turn it into a superb and unique history of the American Civil War. There are more definitive histories, but Keegan's merits a place on the military history buff's bookshelf because of Keegan's singular perspective.

Jerry