"Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson. A Teeny 5-Star Review

 

Battle Cry for Freedom
James McPherson
Oxford University Pres; $19.10; 9780195168952; 1988

With thousands of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, and tens of thousands of ratings in both places, I'll make this short and sweat. "Battle Cry of Freedom" is a most important volume to read on the Civil War. McPherson does a masterful job showing the complexities that led up to the war, and the political and motivational twists evolving in the war. For example, the author gives clear, and profuse evidence, of how the war was not fought over one, narrow, thin monolithic aim (slavery) but was far more entangled. The fact that in 1862 Lincoln almost lost half his army because they weren't fighting for emancipation but the preservation of the Union, is one piece of that convoluted puzzle. 

Much that led up to the conflagration is chronicled, and then the progress of the contest is artfully rehearsed in riveting ways to the last. I was intrigued by how contemporary it all sounded - the media, political artifices, radicalism, attempts to overthrow the Union government from within, and more. In the end, the author shows how the shifts in American ideology (the change from negative liberty to positive liberty) was a major impetus of the conflict and it's aftermath that is still felt up to this day. In 909 pages, this Pulitzer Prize winning tome will capture the heart of the reader and carry them through to the conclusion. This is a must-read!