About this title: 'It may be that Confederate nationalism died so abruptly and so completely because it was never a true nationalism, that the fatal split in the confederate psyche prevented the national spirit from ever flowering fully enough to nourish a resolve that would have persevered in the contest after all the romance was gone. All the more tragic was a war fought with so much bloodshed around a flag whose opponents did not really want to pull it down. If the liberation of African Americans could have been achieved in no way except through war, then the Civil War calls for a rethinking of the attitude ...
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Description: Good. 0253337380 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0253337380 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780253337382ISBN:0253337380
Description: Very Good. Dust jacket included. Goodwillnyonline carries a wide range of quality new and used items at competitive prices. Goodwillnyonline is operated by Goodwill Industries of Greater New York & Northern New Jersey. A major provider of services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. read more
Description: Good. Light stains on side, outer edge of interior pages. Used-Good. Trinity City Books ships from the Dallas, Texas area daily, Mon-Fri and fully guarantee our products. read more
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Size: 8vo over 7¾"-9¾" Tall; Under a new mylar cover, not price-clipped, no remainder mark. No internal or external markings. "A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the events which continue to dominate the American imagination and identity nearly 150 years after the war's end. No one knows more about warfare, ancient and modern, than Russell Weigley. A lifelong student of both strategy and tactics, he also brings to his account a deep understanding ... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780253337382ISBN:0253337380
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. 1ST PRINTING, Blue boards with gilt title impression; hint of wear at bottom spine edge. Spine is straight and tight. Pages and text are crisp, clean and unmarked. Dust Jacket is unclipped, shiny and clean showing minor scuffing and shelf wear. Protected in a new Brodart mylar cover. Very Nice Edition! We will pack your order Quickly & Securely. Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed! read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Indiana Univ Press, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780253337382ISBN:0253337380
Description: Very Good Plus/Near Fine. 4to-over 9¾"-12" Tall 0-253-33738-0 Civil War VG hardcover in a NF dust jacket. It is a 4to measuring 9 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches. 612 pages incluing index. illustrated with a map. "A Great Civil War also analyzes the politics of both sides. " bottom of fep has had a name trimmed from the page. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Date Published: c2000
ISBN-13:9780253337382ISBN:0253337380
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket. 0253337380. Several b/w maps, Indexed, 612 pages, pages bright, a tight, solid copy, in a colorful dustjacket, in a new clear mylar DJ cover. read more
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. 612 Pages. Measures: 6-1/4" x 9-1/2" Clean, tight copy with no writing or marking. Not an Ex-library book or a book club edition. Colorfully illustrated dust jacket. Includes 8 maps, introduction, 13 chapters, notes, bibliography, index, and a brief biography of the author. read more
Edition: First edition
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780253337382ISBN:0253337380
Description: New. "In this in-depth review of the War Between the States, Weigley takes an original tact. Rather than provide a singular account of the major events of the war, he offers several perspectives, then examines the military, political, and historical consequences of each event. " [from Library Journal]. Includes notes, bibliography, index and maps. read more
So why buy another book on the American Civil War? I always ask myself this question. The topic is so heavily covered that you have to wonder if there is anything left to write about.
Weigley tackles the subject as a military historian first and foremost. His focus is primarily operational/strategic, even if the people he wrote about had trouble seeing the war that way. The insights come through as a sentence here, a paragraph there. Analysis is interwoven with narrative, so pay attention.
This book has to be placed within the context of Weigley's other works. "A Great Civil War" sits between "American Way of War" and "The Age of Battles." Weigley has long contended that Americans tend to fight their wars as all-or-nothing efforts. He traces this back to King Phillip's War in New England, when the Pequots nearly pushed the colonists into the sea, only to be wiped out by the colonists (and the Mohawks, but that's beside the point.) Then he brings up the futile quest for decisive battle throughout several centuries of European military history.
Keep these two threads in mind when you read "Great Civil War." Weigley notes the full court press by both sides, but the military leaders had trouble seeing that the ACW was not going to be a Napoleonic repeat of decisive battle, decisive outcome. The term "operational" had not been coined yet. Lee could fight masterful battles that would have rated him a peer of The Napster himself--Second Manassas, Chancellorsville, etc. Repeated attacks, however, charged a horrible blood price which slowly bankrupted the Confederacy manpower pool. Taking the war north and seeking decisive victory there might have offered the political hope of the Union giving up, but a bloody check at Antietam and a bloody loss at Gettysburg negated that strategy.
In the end, there comes the big question: Why did the South lose? (To paraphrase Pickett, I think the Union had something to do with it.) Weigley contends that the South psychologically did not make a full break from the USA. The southern leaders simply adopted much of the political structure, institutions and practices that they knew, thus creating something pretty much like the US that in the end was not worth fighting for, or at least not worth fighting total war, American style.
While this lack of a cause failed to animate the CSA to full fury, abolition and emancipation did so for the Union. Restoration was not enough of a worthy, idealistic goal to fuel the war effort. It had to be a second American revolution or it was not worth the sacrifice.
I give this book a very solid three-star rating. I would have liked to give it fourth star, but here Weigley disappoints on the basis of map craft. He once again turned to Temple University's computer graphics department and some idiot with a PC turned out too few over-complicated and cluttered maps chock full of repetitive detail. It would have been nice if the computer jockey actually understood what he was supposed to illuminate with his cartography."
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