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The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian
written by Shelby Foote
Studio : Vintage
by Vintage
Release Date : 1986-11-12
Publisher : Vintage
Released : 1986-11-12
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780394746210
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 3 reviews)
List Price : $26.00
Our Price : $12.80
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Product Description |
FREDERICKSBURG TO MERIDIAN
"Gettysburg...is described with such meticulous attention to action, terrain, time, and the characters of the various commanders that I understand, at last, what happened in that battle.... Mr. Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and a novelist's skill in directing the reader's attention to the men and the episodes that will influence the course of the whole war, without omitting items which are of momentary interest. His organization of facts could hardly be better."--Atlantic |
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Mr. Foote's Legacy |
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He has left us with a view of our Civil War, that was never captured before, and has not been since. This volume begins with the horrific carnage at Fredericksburg and the crises in Lincoln's cabinet in the aftermath. As in Vol. 1, Foote transitions smoothly from politics to battlefield, and from the war in the East to the campaigns in the West, and stays highly readable every page of the way. |
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Excellent but for serious readers only |
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This second of three volumes covers the conflict from late 1862 to early 1864. This is the period where events began to favor the Federal or Union forces. The largest portion of this volume covers Grant's successful but difficult campaign to seize Vicksburg Mississippi and Lee's disastrous invasion of Pennsylvania (i.e. Gettysburg). While other books provide more details of a single battle, Foote touches and summarizes nearly every engagement during the period covered. He also covers political, economic and civil events on both sides. A note of criticism or warning if you will. Approaching 1000 dense pages "Fredericksburg to Meridian" is not for the faint of heart. While the narrative style and inclusion of several black-and-white maps make it more readable, the additional inclusion of small details can interfere with the 'big picture'. For example, Foote mentions nearly every Brigadier in the conflict along with the movements and actions of their commands. Nevertheless, the book is recommended for serious history readers and a must have for Civil War buffs. |
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An Iliad of American agony |
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I read all three volumes of the great Shelby Foote's Civil War narrative in the 80s. This volume is yet another of his logically well-integrated, dramatic trio on that war and speaks a soft/loud pianoforte of war from the Southern perspective. It contains many a large gulp of its often hesitantly bitter, prolonged agony from the bloody cup of setbacks and disappointments on both sides of the conflict. Had Foote given us the same mysterious energy without frequently caricaturing the North to glorify the South, it, in my estimation, would've transcended all such history, narrative or not, in the long fog of peace and romancing of the war. Yet it's THE monumental work, forcefully contradicting the rule that only victors write definitive histories of war. I hope its brilliant histrionics are never misused by historical revisionists, or deter America from completing the Spartacan dream of abolishing all vestiges of involuntary servitude. |
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