When we recall the period of time McPherson was working on the book, we have to remember that the Lost Cause myth was still prevalent as the dominant explanation of the war. What really made this book stand out from others was the amount of detail given to the cause of the war itself. We also have to consider whether a one volume book should exceed 1000 pages which would almost certainly happen if Battle Cry were to be revised.Įven with these two criticisms, Battle Cry remains an excellent condensed Civil War history. I think he is going to leave the project to other historians. Looking at McPherson's body of work, it is clear that he has written many works on the Civil War for more than forty years and added to his own legacy. However, while I think the book could stand a good revision to keep it current, McPherson decided in 2003 that he would not write a revised version. This is not McPherson's fault because it is the fate of all historical works. In addition, the book is now twenty-five years old and is showing its age in spots where newer research has changed the interpretation of the facts.
As a result, the book appears to be dated from a modern historiographical point of view. Granted, he would not have had a great amount of research available during the 80's to work with comparable to now, 2013.
McPherson does mention class, race, and gender in this history, but he doesn't go into them except as pertains to the war. Yes, the conflict was the central story of that time period, but there are other stories that need to be included in an American History volume covering that period. It does not cover other aspects of American history from 1848 to 1865 except as they relate to the central conflict.
#Battle cry of freedom audiobook series
One is that as an entry in the Oxford History series it focuses almost exclusively on the Civil War itself. There are two major problems with this work.
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. The downside was that it was only an overview, not a detailed in depth series of volumes on every aspect of the 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. At the time of its release, Battle Cry was immediately acclaimed at the definitive one volume work on the Civil War. 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. 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. I would recommend first reading through the preceding volumes in the Oxford History of the United States series, however, in order to get a greater sense of the sweep of history.
If you just want to read a one-volume history of the Civil War, this is your book. The only thing I found unfortunate about the book was that McPherson dignified the Republican fearmongering about a "Slave Power" (this was never a possibility and was nothing more than propaganda) and heavily sanitized/rationalized the brutality of Sherman's campaigns in Georgia and South Carolina (perhaps they were necessary to win the war, but they should still be presented fully). McPherson, contrary to some historians who smear the South as un-American, recognizes that it was indeed the North which was, for good or evil, "revolutionizing" America and the South which was, also for good or evil, "countering" that revolution. His thesis - that the North and the South were both fighting for what they believed American freedom meant - is powerful, and should give pause to those who paint either side as the devil. Most impressive is how McPherson brings all of the complex political, cultural, social, economic, and military events of the war era into one coherent, concise narrative. Needless to say, it is a masterpiece of history. Everything that can be said about this book has already been said before.
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