Manufacturer: Random House Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours List Price:$165.00 Our Price:$120.45 Authors: Shelby Foote Description: This trilogy admirably written of the books on the American civil war is not only one piece of history of first order, but also a marvellous work of the literature. Shelby Foote brings the narrative power of a skilful novelist to this large. Many knows Foote for its role ahead like a commentator on Ken burned the series of PBS about the civil war. These three books, however, are its legacy. Its southernmost sympathies are obvious: the first volume opens by introducing the President confederated Jefferson Davis, rather than abraham Lincoln. But they hardly obtain in the manner of the great Foote history says it. This unit fraught with three volumes should be on the rack of any thick leather of civil war. -- John Miller

shelby foote's civil war trilogy is awesome, but it doesn't tell the whole story. it seems even to WILLFULLY IGNORE the whole story. for readers looking for interesting undiscussed military facts about america's bloodiest war, turn to authors james mcpherson, william freehling, and noah andre trudeau. trudeau has written a much overlooked book on african-americans who served in union ranks, "like men of war."

again, foote's books are great reading! i really had a blast with them. but, sadly, i would like them to have been written in the modern day so they'd include ALL of the pertinent information.


majestic!
If you are looking for lots of footnotes and in-depth scholarly analysis of the Civil War, Shelby Foote's history of the Civil War is definately NOT for you. On the other hand, if you want the best narrative history of the war, this is it! Historians could learn much from Foote's wonderful storytelling. Some reviewers have noted that this is predominantly a battlefield history, which is true. If you have plans to visit a Civil War battlefield site, read through the account of the battle before you go or while you are there and your visit will be greatly enriched. The other area where these books excel is in painting portraits of the important figures in the war. Those who have seen the Ken Burns PBS documentary will quickly see how heavily it drew upon these books. Consisting of three large volumes, it may be a bit intimidating for some to tackle this series, however I found it was well worth it. From start to finish, these books are outstanding and a joy to read!


This is how it should be done!
This is how history should be written. Let the historians have their history books, filled with footnotes. I read history primarily to be entertained (while learning something in the process), and these books really deliver. This is the kind of writing which makes history come alive.


Well worth the effort
There is no denying it, this book requires a tremendous effort to read from start to finish. I began reading Vol. 1 about a year ago and just finished Vol. 3, reading off and on over the year. I really enjoy the depth of Mr. Foote's work. I thought I knew the Civil War before this work, but I learned so much. This book focuses almost exclusively on the military and political aspects of the war; it could have been another thousand pages if he even began to explore social or economic aspects of the conflict. I think the book is a diffcult read - Foote really likes to use LONG sentences that can easily get the reader lost. That is why I'm not giving it five stars - the book is not for the faint hearted.

All in all, the three volumes work best when approached like as a dramatic epic novel. It is fascinating to watch the main characters - Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Lee, and Davis - progress as the war moves forward. From the end, it is amazing to look back past all of the death and destruction to the beginning, when things seemed so much simpler. This is especially true of on the Confederate side - there is an overwheming sense of doom and gloom looming over the Southerners in the last volume. Southern independence - so possible, almost likely, in Vol. 1 - evolves into a hopeless struggle for very survival by Vol. 3. From a dramatic stand point of this story, I think that the Confederates are the more sympathetic side. History, of course, has judged it differently, but this 3-volume work is more dramatic epic than historical scholarship.

This may sound very odd, but in some respects, this work reminds me more of the novel "The Lord of the Rings" or perhaps "The Illiad", rather than other shorter Civil War histories such as McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom". Any way, I really liked all three volumes.


Shelby Foote writes like an angel.
These books have been treasured companions for many years.

I love Shelby Foote's prose and the scholarship that informs it.

One thing I find puzzling - some reviewers are referring to this trilogy as a novel. Why?


Southern chauvinism in an anecdotal battlefield history
Because each one knows burns of Ken, Foote is a marvellous storyteller and its epic history of civil war is filled of marvellous stories. It is strictly a history of battle field, and much a from top to bottom history to that, writes sometimes as if the Generals themselves put hand-with-hand at it. In the capacity as writer such are reasonable decisions (it is rather long!), but they are also decisions which facilitate its sympathies of pro-Confederation to take. If one recalled to one that the war was, inter alia, a combat to finish slavery, the idealization of Foote of the southernmost Generals could return a feeling a little queasy. It introduces the southernmost officers like Messrs at a man, even Forrest, whereas it seldom misses a chance to call into question the reasons and the decency for the trade-union leaders. After one moment its descriptions of Ulysses Grant become funny -- even while ransacking the memories of Grant for quotations sharp which it cannot stop making small excavations, calling into question his reasons and disparaging his competence, his ethics, his character, you call it. The reader starts to await the next mockery, which is never long while coming. There is something of deep about the southernmost historical conscience expressed there. Even a liberal intellectual writing almost a century after the fact cannot forgive Grant for the profit. (or, perhaps, to supervise the rebuilding as president.) If you look after expressing the opinions of the editor, who perhaps can be justified as a corrective measure with the accounts of triumphalist north, Foote presents the obviousness enough. If what you want is a sharp account of the principal military actions, it is the book for you. If you want to know the causes and the effects of the civil war, or its impact on the civil ones, particularly the blacks, look at elsewhere. But if you want to know that the manner that the war continues to influence the spirits of the southernmost intellectuals, read just between the lines.


Both sides of the Civil War
This is a 3 volume work. it describes in detail the entire war, from before the start to after Jeff Davis finished writing his book about the war in the late 1870's.
It goes into detail describing what each side was doing at each of the battles, as well as what was going on in Lincoln's head, and Jeff Davis.
You are dealing with about 3,000 pages, so it takes awhile.
The writing is excellent.


So, you're wondering whether to read these books?
You know already that it is one of traditional of the American history. Here some thoughts which could help you to decide if lira: 1. You must raise each three volume. It is a tale epic broken in three volumes because it would be too large as a book. 2. It is a VERY substantial company. Each book is approximately 1.000 pages of small impression. Moreover, you must spend again reversing time to the excellent charts because this helps you to obtain a feeling for what occurs in the battles. You cannot precipitate this process because the whole point of the book must really imagine as what were the battles. 3. It is almost a purely military history of the war. There is very little about the political context. 4. Then after having finished just this, I know that I will not think of the civil war in the same way, and I will probably not think of the United States in the same way. These books transform. I recommend of any heart these books, and if all is well these thoughts will help you to decide if they are exact for you.


Parting is sweet sorrow
You know these hypothetical questions which you obtain asked in plays of council of adult (C-with-D. if you were failed on an island which CD/book you do like to have)? No doubt about it, trilogy of chief of work of Shelby Foote would rest close to my bed dispatch of sheet of palm tree as I sleep and I would turn pages until far they whithered. The reason that I employed the quotation above is the reading was thus "candy" and hung to me in the ACW. I will continue for reading dozen of more than books on people, places, battles, the policy. The "pain" is in the fact that the voyage finished. I am an avid reader, thus that took approximately 2 months to me to finish the 3000 approximate pages. I still await it with interest the reading in a few years, when I want a small cooling. I suspect that a work as this probably takes with the majority people several months, if not of the years to be finished. In any event, it is good in value him. The quantity of detail is perfect. Principal engagements obtain the full treatment, to the bottom with the brigade and in certain cases at the regimental levels. But no stone is left unturned. Minor skirmishes and the activity of guard postpones are also noted. The west, is, the naval battles. The hearth is a mainly soldier, however, there is a nice matter amount political, social, biographical and cultural. The tons of anecdotes and "moi knew only" standard information. There is also a good balance of tactic counters to the bottom inside the accounts of ditch. Very good charts. Just as the details of the troop movements start to obtain a hazey little, you turn the page to find a chart perfect. I like would have more just seen some, but there is abundance and all well done. There are some comments of others criticize about the allegiance of Foote in the South and to leave out of the atrocities and of such. They is rubbish. I knew that very little the ACW before noting these volumes and me estimate that its treatment was very right at the two sides. A poor chief is critized, if it carried blue or the gray/butternut. Just as a good chief is congratulated. The incursion of Grierson during Vicksburg obtains as many marks raised as any of Forrest. Many others noted all the climaxes, more articulated much than I could never, thus I will return you to these reviews. Simply put, this book is A must read to begin or increase your knowledge of the ACW. That took 20 years for Foote with the completion, and literally each word was thought good outside. It arranges in many the lists of the "principal 100" for best the nonfiction of the 1900' S.


A Delight
Foote once that the aforementioned "facts are right the walking skeleton of the truth" and "the civil war" perfectly famous its sights. The book reads like a good novel and does not remain on the number. I find him full with spirit and full with humour and enormously pleasant read. This fact is only made possible by the research meticulous person which entered the twenty years to write this book. Shelby Foote is a rare man with a great talent and this book is a product of its devotion.


took me three months!
i enjoyed this trilogy like the rest of you. however, i would have liked to read more about the 178,000 african-american union soldiers who made up over 15 % of the union whole; and the 38,000 union african-american soldier deaths; and the 600,000 slaves who voted for emancipation with their feet during the war by fleeing their "owners"; and the 29,500 african-americans in the union navy, or 1/4 of the whole, of which 2,800 died; and the 350,000 white southerners who fought in union armies; and the fact that southern armies marching through maryland and pennsylvania kidnapped african-americans off the streets and took them south into slavery (how noble! what honor it must have taken to do such a thing! anyway, it's history, so why hide it?).

i'm sure few will like this review, but the fact is that foote doesn't give us the whole story, even though his writing is faboo! it makes me wonder if he thought we'd only read HIS version of the civil war. i totally loved these foote books, but found myself turning to people such as william h. freehling and james mcpherson to get the cold hard facts.


A great work, but not perfect...
One of my preferred Englist lit professors in the university once that known as that there still was not been a large novel on the greatest American history, the civil war. Obviously, Shelby Foote comes narrowly. If you obtained with this review, you know the trilogy of large Foote is; but I feel compulsive to still add another comment right to enumerate the straws. I do not want to waste words on the compliments which would be right repititious; thus bear with me. I finished just vol. III and was dissappointed only that it more. But still, I feel a constraint with the nitpick. 1. Forrest was a bad man, and I think that Foote gives him a free passage. The massacre of pillow of fort east documented history; more than 60% of the 200 black soldiers were killed after the walls of the fort were open a breach, and there are accounts of eyewitness of the drawn men while trying to go. And naturally, Forrest founded the KKK, which was an organization of terrorist of the beginning. 2. Wirz (do not know if I spelled that right) was the commander of a camp of prison which was the scene of the atrocities, the famine and the unjust executions. It deserved to be carried out. Foote is in disagreement, and I believe that it is because of sloppiness and of a loss of objectivity. 3. Foote simply does not give enough credit rating to the fifty-fourth Massachusetts (the regiment of "glory") Lincoln itself, not a inclined man to submit wild reports/ratios of Abolitionist, declared that the black soldiers played a crucial part in the victory of the trade unions. The fifty-fourth prepared the ground for these soldiers, and the rather cold comment of Foote that all this regiment was "show that black men could be killed as easily as the white" seemed to be frivolous and also reduce the value multitude symbolic system of the fifty-fourth. That indicated, I must say that I liked the treatment of Foote de Sherman, which is caricatured so much often simply as a démoniaque red-bearded petty thief who said that the "war is hell" and who burned a group of plantations. Even while a kid, I always pleasant with similar Sherman. It has one years of most memorable, and in its own characters in manner admirably in the war, and it was a relief to see it thus depicts.


Amazing.
It is the most incredible history which I ever read. It was necessary for Shelby Foote 20 years to write and me 3 years with reading. I was disappointed when I finished it. It was like losing an old friend. I do not think that there is the best, more complete, more final work on the American civil war, to however remember this is a novel. The required well and writes this is a trilogy to compete with the best. Bruce Catton is excellent; Shelby Foote is just well better. Pay attention very, one that you start will not want to stop.


A Glorious Account of the Civil War
Shelby Foote was one of holds the first role of the famous series of PBS, "the civil war." The comments bas-verouillés and always intelligent of his were the first implies that its work could be better than the majority. To compare this trilogy with other stories accessible from the war is like supporting the diamond of hope with defective zirconium. There is no best history of this defining event than this detailed account. And the effective word is "history" for He returns account not only of the military aspects (which is with precision how the large majority of us pay to the conflict... Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Richmond) - it also brings the cultural one, the policy, the personnel. This work is extremely detailed however one is never lost in the details. Instead of that there is a long vault of the first projectile at the inevitable and terrible end. Much declared that Foote tends to underline the South and it is true. Three warnings should be noted, however. One, Foote is an Inhabitant of the south of a family of the Inhabitants of the south and in the second place, the South with all its eccentricities and the characters of the large-that-life are simply more interesting. And to finish, the whole war - except a short moment - centered in the South Almost of the first word I was caught in the drama in this forwarding which was condemned to the failure not only for the military reasons but also the reasons morals. The author suggests much reason of the war but seems to imply most suitable - the fact that for the first time since the revolutionary war, the South was not ascending any more in the federal government and the situation could only become worse. A epic adventure of the highest degree! Have a pen at disposal for passages of favourite of inscription.


After the first volume, its great - I'm hooked!
I really enjoyed McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" but I found it lacking details in areas I was interested in learning more about, such as the war at sea, in the "trans-Mississippi", and smaller theaters of action. Most of that book focused on politics/society and the "big" fronts: Virginia and Tennessee/Mississippi. I really wanted more, I already know about Gettysburg!

I had noticed that McPherson uses Foote's books as source materials and my favorite professor in college said Foote was his favorite author, so I decided to attempt to read this massive three-volume work. I've only finished book one, but I've found it to be totally enjoyable!

Sure the book mainly focuses on the battles, and there is so much more to a war than the battles, but the battles are very interesting to me. Sure the book favors the South - though not as much as "Battle Cry" favors the North, at least as far as I've read. Since I find the Confederacy to be more interesting from a dramatic stand point, I don't mind at all. Sure, in real terms, I'm glad the Union won the war(even though as a libratarian, I don't really care for Lincoln's political policies), but I like to root for the underdog, even when reading history.

I'm glad I read "Battle Cry of Freedom" first, because Foote puts so much information into the book that it can get confusing at times keeping up with things. It was useful to already have a more indepth understanding of events beyond what I learned in high school and college. There are A LOT of details to keep straight in this book!


Worth the time involved!
Then after having finished each three novel just (one to charge not for the weak one of the heart) I feel that compulsive to present its observations on EXCEPTIONAL Mr. Foote of work made while bringing to the life what many considers the most perilous time in the history of our nation. As much of other people, my education of the civil war consisted ONLY of strong Sumter, Gettysburg, the proclamation of emancipation and Appomattox. So much more deserved to be known as, and these series does it with the impeccable detail and marvellous prose. The writing is marvelously poetic with a contact of mood and irony. The principal characters authoritative are brought outside: Grant, disposable commander of brigade in the Mexican wars which failed in the businesses and, during a low point in the civil war, really thought of the resignation until his friend, Sherman WEIGHT, spoke out of it to become "the cold mathematician thereafter" this Lincoln so much painfully sought to order the army of Potomac; "Stonewall Jackson", the eccentric however commander "bold" and skilful of the brigade of valley which would duplicate its army and would whip outside with the forces twice its size; Bind, pious commander however daring southernmost forces which exceeded each simple Scandinavian commander until the bitter end when it simply did not have any more any man or materiel; and in conclusion, Lincoln, the principal politician who managed to gain successfully the political battles in Washington while seeking and finally finding in the combination of Grant and Sherman the pitiless men however determined necessary to finish the conflict. Yes, it is a length read (each volume more than 900 pages). BUT IT IS IN VALUE HIM! !


A great work of scholarship.
I admit that I spent almost 3 months reading this trilogy, but at least it was three months spent well. I realized the first time of the author while Ken of observation burned the excellent series of PBS, and during this time it seemed to to me that it was employed while a lawyer for the southernmost cause. Being a Yankee in the South deep myself, I it lucky find myself drawn to both "trims" and neither one nor the other, alternatively. I had just finished the most excellent army of Bruce Catton of the trilogy of Potomac, and the feeling which I had allowed this Michiganer to infuse me with his sights, it seemed only just to be exposed to Mr. Foote' S as well. Neither one nor the other author is something but American, and consequently, the two books indicate the history with the compassion for all the men who fought the battles which were delayed above during four years incredible. In fact, both seem vaguely sympathetic nerves in the south, but this also seems to be an American feature, this tendency to trim with oppressed. Nevertheless, it is balanced and right in its approach with all the players of principle on the two sides. The search for Mr. Foote' S is excellent and its funds of knowledge are simply amazing (I realize that he wrote his notes). While its literary model is half of stage behind that of Mr. Catton, its purse is not. I think that nobody would read this without having more than one occasional interest for the conflict, and of these people, none will be disappointed by work.


A Herculean effort
I was introduced the first time at Shelby Foote by his participation with the documentary one of civil war of burns of Ken. These books are absolutely attractive. The level of the detail in its history is exceptional. It would be thought that the major pleasure party of these volumes would be a treatment of surefire for insomnia, but Mr. Foote has a regenerating model: a mixture shining in historical fact and softness storytelling of a gifted novelist. More than 10.000 books were written about this war, and are more to come, but I believe that nobody knows the war just as the foot of Shelby. A must for the serious leather thick of civil war (why they are always called that?). If it would read this: I greet you, Mister.


A classic.
I have more of a general reader's perspective on this set, as I am not a historian, nor an academic. However, I realize this is a classic; from I've gotten through so far, rightfully so.

First, this set is huge. It's taken me about two years just to get up the courage to start reading it. It's slow going, but that's because you are so enthralled in it. It is a truly great read, and I can't imagine a better narrative, nor a more descriptive one.

The only problem I have is that I wish there were more of the little graphics that show troop movements throughout the books. These really help you visualize the action more. Actually, there could probably be a whole companion book with these troop movements laid out to correspond with the chapters.

Overall though, you can't go wrong with this classic.


A Masterpiece!
Why don't they teach American History in public schools? The Civil War was mentioned in the text books of my day, the mid-20th century, but is scarcely referred to today.
To fill this void, those who want to truly be educated must do independent reading. Having just completed the first volume of Shelby Foote's trilogy (Ft. Sumter to Perryville) I have become an avid Civil War history buff. In the past month I drove to Virginia in order to visit the Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, and Wilderness battlefields. I anticipate I will visit others in the future.
I also discovered that the National Park Service has listings of Union and Confederate soldiers. I have been able to identify 35 Union and 8 Confederate soldiers related to me, and the regiments in which they served.
The detailed accounts of the campaigns and pitched battles in this book surpass anything else I have read about the Civil War. Shelby Foote's narratives bring the war to life.
The most surprising element I found in the book was the account of political infighting among the general officers on both sides.
The only criticism I have of the writing is that the reader sometimes finds he has been reading about the activities of a particular individual for two or three pages in which the person is always referred to as "he" and it is sometimes necessary to backtrack and see who "he" is.


the Civil War Historians Bible
I have to say, I found one really bad thing about this book. That is, that the book had to end. This book is over 3,000 pages if you get the 3 volumn edition, and close to 3,800 if you find the 14 volumn 40th edition of it. There is nothing disparanging to say, with this book. The best Civil War historians quote this book, and like Douglas Freeman, and the O.R. it is their Bible. When I read mine, I was aware of this, and carefully used a yellow highlighter so as to be able to more easily find references, for debates, articles, and quotes.

This book does not present a Northern OR a Southern side of the Civil War. JUST FACTS, That is the true beauty of great history books.

Some people have two sets of these books, one for the office, to go over in our spare time, and another in our homes.

My warning to those that undertake to read this wonderful set of books, is don't be surprised, when you feel let down, and a little depressed, as this story has to come to an end.

As a good read, there were many pages that made me shed a tear; ( When Lincoln lay dying, and Senator Sumner was crying like a baby); to the anger at the vivid description of Shermans army burning Columbia. ( This is very descriptive, as is much of the book)

Shelby Foote painstakingly took 20 years to write this book, and did a phenomal job.


Breath-taking in scope and detail
I am not a Civil War buff. In the past I've read just a couple books on the subject - one was "Killer Angels" about Gettysburg by Michael Shaara, another great book - so I decided to learn about the entire war from beginning to end. This series of books does a fantastic job of covering all the major aspects, military, civilian, political, international, etc. Foote's detailed research and true understanding of how all the pieces fit together is what, in my opinion, makes this series sing.

What I enjoyed most was seeing how the various generals moved through the ranks and became the legends we think of today. Sherman, Grant, Longstreet, Stuart, Jackson, Lee, Meade, Bragg and all the rest are here in vivid detail; some stabbing each other in the back, others showing their genius for tactics and leading men.

I laughed out loud reading about how Jeb Stuart, after his horse was struck in the neck by a bullet, stuck his finger in the bullet hole to stop the spurting blood, continued riding for a mile and then dismounted (removing his finger) and the horse collapsed. I bet it was a sight to behold!

The full breath of heroism, bad decisions and outright luck of the civil war is here to behold.

It's long, but if you enjoy to act of reading you'll enjoy every minute of this series.


Foote's American Iliad...
This whole of three volumes is, without any doubt, one of the greatest literary achievements and histories never. I think that it is one of the five most important operations ever written on the civil war written Flawlessly, carefully involved and traced, they are weds the art and the trade of a novelist with research meticulous person of a harassing historian. Approached by Bennet Stag in 1954 about writing a short history of volume of the war, allowed Foote and like the citizen of honor of Douglas Southall, discovered that a treatment much longer would be the only manner it could make subjected justice. It asked Cerf if it could "go eagle of diffusion, whole pig" on top. Stag gave him advance. Twenty years after, it achieved the third volume, "red river with Appomattox" in 1974. Its account reads quickly, it is detailed, however never manner of scourging. Foote indicates its characters in the pieces. It never of the marshes the reader downwards with five basic pages on a particular character, but in the place, it gives them the instantaneous ones which are used to illuminate them. "The Civil war: An account "is probably 75% soldier and 25% policy. Foote is an inhabitant of the south, however I do not think that the books lean in any particular direction. Foote also does not reveal in the opinions on any figure. It usually let us the history make speak, a thing difficult to make in a war so persistent and it withdraws it. If you recorded volume of companion to the series of PBS, then in McPherson, you be then ready for Foote. I cannot imagine the best, a more complete and more detailed treatment which is so enthralling. This chief of work deserves no less than five holds the first role. SUPERB!


Certainly, this is a
No doubt about it, if you really want to know about the Civil War, you can't ignore Shelby Foote's tome. I agree with several other reviewers, however, that this is "nuts and bolts" about each and every battle which will tickle the fancy of those interested in knowing them. But for all the gazillions of pages and (obviously) years of work Shelby Foote put into this unequaled effort, there isn't as much as I had expected about the politcal and social aspects of the war.

Structure is too often a problem. Not only, as a previous reviewer notes, are there references to details mentioned once 400 pages earlier, but keeping track of Foote's ideas is difficult even in single sentences. He is, undoubtedly, the master of "nesting" several subjects into one l-o-n-g sentence. He will start out with a subject, then add necessary information to that subject after starting out to talk about it (rather than before), and then, eventually, many "commas" later, gets back to saying what he originally set out to say about the original subject -- which makes you go back and re-read the whole sentence (sometimes paragraph) over and over again so you can follow the flow. (This sentence is a mild example!) This sort of "super-digression," although grammatically correct, gets to be a chore.

Foote's work is written with obvious sympathy for the South, while, at the same time, is careful not to understate the legitimacy of the North's cause. Not much about how the South won the peace even though they lost the war. Andersonville isn't mentioned except at the very end, and only in passing when a reference is made to its commanding officer. The message Foote sends is that he was wrongly executed.

Regarding books about the Civil War, I am a bigger fan of McPherson's work (Battle Cry Freedom) for several reasons. But if you really want to immerse yourself in the details of the battles, and if you really want to experience the impact of just about each of the 600,000 lives lost, and you want to learn how deep the "peculiar institution" was ingrained within a people, so much so that even the loss of so many lives would not result in any definitive change in that way of life (which explains in part why there was another 100 years tacked on to the war after the shooting stopped), don't miss reading Shelby Foote!


EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE
I have yet to finish reading this marathon work, but I can honestly say that it is the greatest work of historical literature that I have yet read.

Firstly, the author shows an encyclopaedic grasp of the facts of history together with an intuitive and almost uncanny sense of their significance in relation to the unfolding story.

Secondly, his literary skills give even his vast factual knowledge a run for their money. This is no mere recitative of dry facts, but a perfectly paced and dramatically structured narrative, in which different literary genres such as biography and story-telling are seamlessly interwoven.

Thirdly, he has a rare gift for being judgmental without being partisan. He is not afraid to find good and bad on either side of the conflict; in fact he is not even afraid to find a cocktail of good and bad in individuals whom history slots
entirely into one moral category or the other.

Fourthly (and this is more subjective), this is so enjoyable as a read. The author's own exuberant fascination with the period, and the intensity of his admiration or scorn for the various personages involved on either side of the conflict, are communicated to the reader.

The three volumes of this `magnum opus' are available separately, but this three-volume boxed edition is the way to own it. I don't know if the three books were published sequentially or simultaneously, but in a very real sense we are talking about a single coherent work in three volumes.

If you know nothing at all about the Civil War, you could find this sheer size of this work a bit daunting; more seriously, you could lose the bigger picture in the sheer wealth of fascinating detail. In that case, James McPherson's extraordinarily brilliant overview ("The Battle Cry of Freedom") could be a better place to start. However, if you want something really substantial to keep you engrossed on that coast-to-coast wagon-train journey, this is unreservedly recommended for beginner or Civil War enthusiast alike.


excellent civil war military history
I recommend Mr. Foote' S unrivaled the military history of the civil war, or while I call it, "the war for American slavery." Moreover, while I believe should study all the aspects to us available concerning of the matters of interest, and seeing because the trilogy of Foote does not touch on the instition private individual of the slavery itself... of the Slavic prospect, I also recommend itself of the tailor of Yuval "was constant Slavic." This collection of two volumes of Slavic configurations of accounts discover the emotive CORE of an exit that that carried out to the terrible exchange of detailed the Foote arms. "the Slavic accounts," by William Andrews, is also good. If a large anthology of Slavic accounts is not for you, test some various Slavic accounts. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs wrote fascination, and relatively short, accounts. Be sure of attentively reading the Slavic accounts BEFORE reading a military history of the war itself. This gives to suitable prospect about a war fought above the right-hand side to keep the human ones like slaves of personal property. After your Slavic account, and for a detailed political history of the moment bringing to the war for American slavery, I suggest that David Morris Traînent "the imminent crisis: 1848-1861." Happy reading!


Great!
I had a great time reading this, but found slightly the anti-Union, which was comprehensible since she was written by an inhabitant of the south. The polarization of Foote was just obvious from the very start when it described Davis as a most intelligent man in the senate, and as an aristocrat etc. and Lincoln described as monkey each three volume is numerous with other examples. In spite of polarization, it always large was read and I strongly recommend it.


The Ultimate Civil War Narrative
What can be known as about this account which was not already known as? It is the most complete history of the civil war that I ever saw. Mr. Foote passes point by point by the war as it occurred in each area of the United States. He gives not only details of the specific battles but also the reactions of the implied respective governments. Foote does an excellent work to describe the circumstances in the government confederated during the war. Alot of the stories of civil war concentrate on tests of President Lincoln but of Mr. Foote to show what occurred confederated side. It astounds how much history and detail which is in these volumes. In the sector where I live there was no principal battle of kind, just of a federal trade early in the war by the Grant UNITED STATES and of some incursions of martyrdom a few years afterwards by N.B. Forrest. These events were not significant with any battle or in the large arrangement of the war but they were included in these volumes. The quantity of research and detail implied by writing these books staggers and the history is known as in a very interesting way. It is A must read for any enthusiast of civil war.


Where are the African Americans?
Having ploughed to the end of volume 2 at more than 1,000 pages, I asked myself this question: where are the blacks in this narrative? If you like a book about the Civil War without even a glance at slavery, then these volumes are for you.


The Best and most Comprehensive Civil War Books Ever!!!!
I have to say that personally what Shelby Foote has done in these magnificent books, could never be duplicated. You could not claim to be an expert, a buff, or a reenactor before reading these books. It took the Union and Confedrates 4 long years to fight the civil war, it took shelby 20 to write, not passing up the slightest detail.

The way he pays attention to the western theater of war rather than getting a case of virginiatis is incredible. Sure the Southern Generals are shown in a more sympathetic light but he grew up in the yazoo mississippi delta, what do you expect.

As for his lack of portraing slavery I think on the cover of the book the title is The Civil WAR a Narrative, not the story of slavery


The central event in American history magnificently told
Although there are many, many great books on the Civil War, and many who can lay claim to being greater historians of that conflict, Shelby Foote can lay claim to having recounted the greatest single event in American history better than anyone. They key to this work is the subtitle: a NARRATIVE history. While he does engage in insightful analysis of the causes of the war and of the central events and individuals in it, his primary task is to tell the history of the conflict as dramatically and as accurately as possible while remaining responsible as a historian.

On one level, Foote might have been somewhat of a surprise to write such a fabulous work. At the time of the writing, he was known primarily as a novelist, not as a historian. In this he resembles Bernard DeVoto, who while primarily a novelist and literary critic, wrote three great historical works to cap his career as a writer. What sets Foote apart from other writers on the Civil War is precisely his gifts as a novelist. THE CIVIL WAR is, as Foote tells it, the Great American Novel. If he was constrained by the events of history as to how the story would unfold, he nonetheless manages to make every scene and character come vividly alive.

Although a Southerner with an acute sense of his region's history, Foote provides a tremendously balanced recounting of the conflict. If he is sympathetic and effective in writing about such Southern heroes as Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Robert E. Lee, he is equally as capable when writing of Lincoln, Sherman, and Grant. While the South had the more interesting set of characters in the War, the North did have the central figure in Lincoln, and there are few better accounts of Lincoln's genius and his importance than Foote's. Indeed, while Lee and Jackson and Forrest may emerge in the books as the great military leaders of the war, Lincoln emerges as the War's greatest genius, the one whose vision and force of will led it to an inevitable conclusion. Throughout the work, Foote excels in writing about the myriad of individuals comprising the cast of characters of the conflict.

Foote also excels in writing about the great battles of the war. So often, writers attempt to write about a battle, only to be immersed in the fog of war. Foote dispels the fog, only to reveal the events in marvelous clarity. No one writer writes so well about so many battles. His accounts of Jackson's Shenandoah campaign, Chancellorsville, Chickamauga, Fredricksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, and a host of other battles are absolutely first rate.

Many, many people know the reputation of THE CIVIL WAR, know how highly it is regarded, and yet hesitate to read it because of its length. Yes, it is long. But few long books so completely repay the effort. If you don't understand the Civil War, you don't understand America. As Foote put it so brilliantly on Ken Burns's Civil War series (a series that made Foote known beyond the previous readers of his novels and this set), the Civil War is the central event in American history; it is what made us a country. And no one tells this story so capably and brilliantly as Foote. The story, to be told correctly, requires a work this long to tell it properly. Even as brilliant a one-volume history as James MacPherson's BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM fails to do as good a job simply because he doesn't have the space to deal as exhaustively with the story as Foote does. If I had to recommend only one work on the Civil War, it would be Foote's magnificent narrative. Read this not merely because it is a crucial story marvelously told, but because it is a story with which all Americans and any non-American wanting to understand America must be familiar.


Read Here Now
If you like American History and haven't read this book, this is a very good day for you. Having found out about Shelby Foote, lo, some years ago when the Ken Burns series first aired, I bought the middle book of the series, thinking "Skip the prologue, I wanna sink my teeth into the good stuff". I read that one and was smitten. My sense of sequence was skewed somewhat from then on, however. I followed it up with the third book and, ravenously, just had to read the beginning. That was the summer of '95, I think. To write a review of these books is like Lincoln dedicating Gettsburg. To say that Mr Foote is a good storyteller would not only be an understatement, it would be like calling a three-legged perenial piping plover a bird. This marvelous and hard-working writer takes an immense subject, for so many years treated clinicly and episodicly, and leads the reader on a great national adventure, finally tragic. Not fictionalized, the men and women come to life by clear, intimate description of personality, circumstance(political or otherwise) and action. Not a wasted word here. We travel back in time to a not wholely innocent place and time where the players have all the same traits of all us mortals, only age-appropriate. The blending and melding of these tragic, history-changing events is so adeptly handled by Shelby's pen as too appear effortless as he weaves a fine patchwork from the point of view of all the majors and minors from the skulking deserter or "shabby" profiteer to the heros' of our nation reclamation, so sad for the proud South and bittersweet for the North . Biased towards neither side. Humourous and light-hearted with a subtle approving wink. Keeping a sense of the sorrow and tragedy and immense national loss. To have handled this subject in the first place, was an act of bravery in itself. To have done it so adeptly is truly a legacy and a gift to all of us.
Looking around for something to read recently, I just happened to pick up book 2 again and started having at it. I pulled myself up short and thought, "Maybe I should do this right, right now". I am about to re-fight Cancerlorsville, Stonewall's last battle. Wish me luck.
More Maps Please. And while you at it, could you write a little follow-up titled, perhaps, Reconstruction? Thank you, Mr. Foote. Colter Rule NYC


Don't be intimidated by the size of this work.
Shelby Foote's mamonth narrative of the American Civil War is defenantly one of the best ever written. I highly recommend these novels to anyone who has an intrest in the conflict that tore the American nation apart from 1861-1865. Foote tells the reader about the war, and more importantly, about those who fought it in the same folksy, storyteller style that made him the most popular consultant in Ken Burns documentary The Civil War. The casual reader will find these books a very easy read. By the time you are finished, all the great participants will have been transformed from the dusty, unknowable historical figures of your high school history books into real human beings with all the faults and frailties that we all possess and you will have a far greater knowledge of the war that did so much to shape modern America.


A Magnificient Epic
Shelby Foote is a novelist and he brings the skills of a good writer to his three volume history of the Civil War. He tells a good story with a high standard of accuracy. I doubt that anyone has ever written a better account of the most-written about event in American history.

Two facts about Foote's history. First, the focus is on the South. Foote spends more time on Jefferson Davis than he does on Abraham Lincoln. The Southern generals are more lovingly drawn than the northerners. Secondly, Foote gives more space than the typical historian to the war in the West, as befits his own ancestry as a Mississipian. Vicksburg gets almost equal time with Gettysburg and Foote avoids the Virginia-itis of so many Civil War historians.

The long chapter on Gettysburg is considered by many to be the centerpiece of the three volumes, but I keep returning to Foote's tale of the masterful Second Manassas campaign, pages 585-649, Volume I. The most regrettable omission of the book is the short shrift Foote gives to the assault by Negro troops on Fort Wagner, South Carolina (page 697-698, Volume 2). (See the movie "Glory.") Surely, this battle deserves more attention for its human interest quality, if not its military significance. The most fascinating character is the "Wizard of the Saddle," Nathan Bedford Forrest. The South didn't want to win badly enough to give Forrest, an evil genius, a major command until late in the war. One wonders what might have happened if he had been in command at Perryville or Vicksburg.

This is a book that will always occupy a prominent place on my bookshelf. My only regret is that it isn't longer. I usually complain about books being too long, but 3,000 pages isn't enough to tell the tale of the Civil War. More! More!


The Civil War: A Narrative:
Shelby Foote did an excellent civil work while covering years ago of war where it was the first whole of books which I had read on the subject. His writting facinated thus me which I have now more than 60 books on the war. It transformed me into thick leather of civil war, but I lime pits not. A deffinate must read!


Breathtaking
I read many books of civil war and none is as admirably written as these volumes. I still read sometimes passages on several occasions. The account of Mr. Foote' S three days terrible of Gettysburg is worth the sorrow only the price. Mr. Foote takes a balanced tonality though he is an Inhabitant of the south. He treats Grant, Sherman and Sheridan as well as the dregs, Jackson, and Stuart. It is great historical writing. Appreciate!


History my eye!
Anybody who thinks that Shelby Footes long winded plonk is accurate Civil War history had better really READ IT !
He thinks that any atrocity committed by the Confederates was ok (even the cowardly murders of unarmed soldiers and men and boys ect by Quantrill and his gutless crowd of psychopaths) but let the Union forces of Freedom fight back and he bleats that it was an outrage ect ect.
He must have got his research from GONE WITH THE WIND and Klu Klux Klan meetings.
Sorry but that's the facts. But then he IS a good old boy so I guess they are still whining.


The Greatest Historical Narrative in U.S. History
These authoritative, and massive, account of the tests and tribulations of the civil war are, in my spirit, the second greater historical account ever written, bested only, and hardly, by traditional decline and autumn ' of the gibbon of Edouard it '. An atmospheric and sharp account of rise and Davis and Lincoln, repectively, begin the book. The nation dissolves then in anarchy, both side precipitating to raise troops for that, great, final battle. With the first battle, first Manassas, you enter your first true outline the genius of Foote. But this battle so comparatively small, thus me was still trustful of exactly as large it is. After a series small of short battles and sharp like the bluff of the ball and the edge of peas which hang to you, the first massive battle occurs: Shiloh. With this battle, I knew that this book was large. The detail and the action were astonishing, and I felt exact in the combat. The book is only better. I cannot really pass by all the book in this detail, because of the heavy size of the war and the book. However, I can say to you that it is only better. While the battles and the campaigns become larger and more brutal, the book further draws you inside. The campaigns of Vicksburg and Gettysburg are among most notable. Do not let the length discourage you, obtain this book!


I will keep this review simple
No matter who you think was right in the War between the States, when Foote writes from the perspective of the underdog, north or south, you'll hope and pray; when he writes from the perspective of certain failure, you'll be moved close to tears; when writing of a successful army in its endeavor, you'll cheer as excitement grips you in anticipation of victory.

If you're interested in the Civil War this is a must have. It gives a base upon which to prepare for books about specific people, battles, etc. Do not be scared by its length. It is an incredibly gripping read.


THE definitive text on the "War of Northern Aggression"
There is no better history of this multifaceted struggle than what has been given to the world by Professor Foote. Thoroughly researched and tenderly written. Get comfortable; it will prove to be a long read. But a superior read will scarce be found. For those who grow weary of the intellectual vaccuum which has become television, this is the tale which will excite the mind and deepen the understanding. Those who have read Professor Foote's opus "will greatly note and long remember" this magnificient achievement.


Review of Volume 2
The civil war, volume II, is a splendid account of the history, as of Fredricksburg until the day before of the massive offensive of the trade unions approximately to launching, in the east and in the west, by lieutenant Général Ulysses S. Grant. In his elegant prose (however lives), Mr. Foote recalls us this scale of time, so that we can be pilot first hand high tide of confederated military supremacy, the determination and the resolution of the government of the trade unions and the people vis-a-vis with a cord crushing defeats, the rotation of the tide at Vicksburg and Gettysburg (and later Chattanooga), and with the nomination of the United States completely imparables Grant as General-in-chief of all the federal armies, the beginning of the end of the war. I would like to present his observations on the hero who emerges like appears principal in second half of volume 2, of a hero on the Scandinavian side of the conflict (...) in the war of Tolstoy and of peace, one (not also subtle) of the made assertions, was that the généralat and the military strategy were completely of no importance by determining the results of a battle between the contractual armies. Indeed, Tolstoy believed that it was fine human arrogance to think that a man could influence the events on a large scale which tended towards noisy chaos while they revealed. While Volume of Mr. Foote' S testifies with the fact that even the military plans and strategies better wide seldom played outside well on fields of battle-null share of civil war in the book is this constant out moreover more clearly than in the chapter "the first role in their courses Holds", where all the plans of the dregs at Gettysburg were thwarted by the bad chance, the executions mottled by its lieutenants, and its clean hubris it also clearly the exposures which an able General can in makes make with a difference. President Lincoln knew that all along that the war was to be gained wear and as a hard combatant; he knew that the federal armies should be controlled with a sight towards exploiting the superiority of the trade unions above the SCA in the resources and labour. In short, the country needed a irrepressible General who could "face arithmetic". During this volume, it appeared clearly that Grant was right the man for work. Fortunes of the nation would depend finally on this man of few words public (although he was an extremely effective author, like its forwardings war and memories posterior certify), of the courage of stolid and the aggression not decreased in the field, and of firm fidelity to his wife and friends. The way with the final victory would be carried out by this man who would go up of the farmer failed and hardscrabble the president of the United States, in approximately ten year. The country would give the reins of the military order to this man who had a simply incredible direction of concentration, and A bulldog-like the indefatigability during the meeting of its objectives (for example, consider its series of seven attempts not successful to take Vicksburg, the large citadel of the river of Mississippi and the key of axle of the confederation, before it finally struck the paydirt with his daring walk however the hinterland of Mississippi to approach Vicksburg on the side towards the ground, far from his base from provisioning, combatant of the battles launched all along the manner.) The Grant General had his straws to be sure: he had a vindictive nature towards his enemies and cronyistic towards his friends, the features which were used it rather well probably as commander of field, but which contributed to its presidency completely disasterous. Moreover, I do not think who it was as modest as the history seems to remember it. In particular, it had a tendency to depreciate the achievements of others, particularly if those could potentially eclipse its clean. For example, with the battle of Chattanooga, in an action which inspired the whole besieged army of the trade unions, the talonnor of Joseph took his three divisions around the left confederated and fixed the slopes of the mountain of monitoring in the "battle celebrates above clouds"; not a sure battle important to be, but always a little nice of repurchase for a man that just several months earlier had suffered at Chancellorsville one of the worst floggings in the history of soldiers of the UNITED STATES. But of this exploit, Grant simply "scoffed a long time afterwards: the ` the battle of the mountain of monitoring is one of the lovesongs of the war. There were a no such even worthy battle and no action to be called a battle on the mountain of monitoring. It is all poetry.' " From similar mode, Grant drew aside the legendary exploits of T J Jackson in the valley of Shenandoah, Hannibal-like the competence of the general dregs, and others. Always, alive in our current world, where the capacity to express "the ' tude" is considered an excellent quality, it was a great pleasure so that I take volume II and of bed of the quiet confidence of Grant in and success, and of its simple and modest nature, which is remained without change all by its meteoric rise with the fame. Wrought authoritative volume II of Mr. Foote' S is filled out of the stories of such figures inspiring are also abundance of the labels about the figures noninspiring, but those also move towards the great reading. To conclude, I am not an expert as regards civil war by any right end, and thus AM not qualified to say that the civil war of Mr. Foote' S, volume II (and I and III) constitutes the "standard". However, I can say that I examine these books as dear friends, and it is on the subject as much of praise than I can give any piece of writing.


The War as Literature
There a long time was a conflict between the historians and the authors; Foote comes most narrowly to a resolution. To strongly draw from Andrew Nelson Lytle (if you do not know it, you if), Foote indicates the history of the war, though of a southernmost prospect, although not really eccentric. If you want to know the war, all in one only part, this is work. You can criticize his purse, and much, enviously, have, but you cannot criticize storytelling his and its total capacity to communicate the full direction of a formative experiment of America. Nobody which would know the war can make without this masterly work.


SUPERLATIVE CIVIL WAR HISTORY
Though almost 3000 pages length, this book is good in value your time if you want a well written, the complete, instructive history and amusing American civil war Shelby Foote managed to uniformly produce the history precise and educated in any sound opus. I read all Bruce Catton and James McPherson as well as many of other biographies and stories of unit, people of the country and countryside of the civil war. Although read good, I cannot claim to be an expert in civil war and AM incompetents (and unwilling)to check all the facts and information contained in its book, but if Foote vague in the places like is claimed by some, managed certainly to him to give the range and the gasoline of the civil war to its readers. The book does not read so much as analyzes of a distant conflict occurring 140 years in the past as discussion of the current events which occurred just little time ago. Descriptions and the explanations of the author of the campaigns and the personalities make the civil war come living and become more comprehensible with the contemporary reader. Contrary to much of stories which treat the Western campaigns like occurring in the valley of Shenandoah, Foote gives the equal treatment to the campaigns occurring in the Western frontier States of Missouri and Kentucky and the confederated littoral states of Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas in more of the generally produced battles of Scandinavian Virginia, the frontier States Eastern, and the South deep. It includes even the action in New Mexico and in Arizona! The book includes a complete description of north of naval action and South, the fleets of fresh water and on the open seas. It explains social aspects and war on each side although necessarily the impact on the South was more the devastator. The local policy as well as of the intrigues of level of box on the two sides is accentuated with diplomatic relations with Europe and the Latin America. Although the southernmost prospect for Foote is obvious in its treatment of before at the house Southerner in Richmond and elsewhere, I did not detect any abnormal polarization in favour from the southernmost point of view as of others have. I am been willing to accept the complaint of the author to have only one sympathetic nerve point of view of with oppressed in the fight. Undoubtedly, the South fought a long time, hard, and good and was finally exhausted and demolishes by north demographic and of the economic advantages. The charts of the principal campaigns and the territorial changes are well made and save much confusion for the reader. I appreciated Foote including/understanding the military order of the portion of the information of battle to maintain reports/ratios of order clear as changes were made. There are some very minor complaints to make. I believe that it in a work of these length and globality, notes and a bibliography not only would be useful but is essential. With a length of almost 3000 pages, 50-100 pages of the notes and sources too would not be for the author and the editor to be included and if one does not read the latter normally, their inclusion should not worry whoever in any event. I include/understand the reasons given by the author to omit his sources but them would please make them be appropriate myself and AM other sure. I also think that the length of chapter could be peeled slightly of the hundred or more paginates included in each chapter. In conclusion, I would like to have particularly seen more portraits of illustrations of photograph of the chiefs mentioned in the book. While us all soaps in which Grant and binds and probably also Sherman and Jackson resembled, in a book of these length and matter I would have appreciated a gallery of photograph for those which are curious how Pierre Beauregard, Irvin McDowell, Leonidas Polk, John McClernand and others appeared during the conflict. The edition that I read was printed in 1987 thus editions perhaps more recent incorporate some of these suggestions. If not and Mr. Foote does not wish to devote more his life to this book, a qualified assistance of research or graduate should easily be able to incorporate some of these additions of the notes of Mr. Foote' S and other sources available.


The Single Greatest History Series I've ever read.
There have been pleanty of reviews and kudos given to this series. They are entirely deserved. As a voracious reader of history for 30 years it was just unbelieveable. Before this series I wasn't particularly interested in the Civil War. These books and Ken Burns made it interesting. The greatest challenge of a historian is how do you sell something someone isn't interested. Foote does this by making the book a conversation. Its a conversation you won't walk away from. If there is any fault to the series it is that volume 2 & 3 tend to repeat certain info in the first two, (If I hear John Breckinridge Mustache compared to a Siclian Brigand one more time I'll go nuts.) this is of course unavoidable since you can't assume the people have read the previous two volumes. As far as faults go it is practically invisible, (See Breckinridge thing.) In my opinion on the subject of the Civil War there is no single item more worthy of purchase anywhere at any time.


A truly awesome iliad
Be not intimidated by the fine size of these three volumes - the model of writing of Foote it is very easy to digest. However based completely on the fact (of the thousands of memories, private diaries, notes, documents, interviews, etc), one almost says the history of the whole war like a fictitious novel, however not with the degree of "anges of killer", for example. I found passing in strong gale by the pages, continuing to read so that I could discover what was going to occur afterwards. The level of the detail astonishes - although I thought that I knew the war rather well, I have (and improve far) an arrangement completely different from him maintaining. Foote also does an excellent work by balancing the accounts of north and the South, their positive points and negative points. It also addresses the perception not balanced that the civil war was only fought in Virginia - it was not, with many large battles and small to arrive from Florida at New Mexico at the strait of Bering. If you want to really know the details of the military businesses and from the political underpinnings of the civil war, obtain this series. You will not regret it!


A stay-awake masterpiece
I the second praise of other authors; to add only my clean small observation on the true genius of the book. It is not simply a great history of the war, it is a great manner of including/understanding the war itself of a prospect soldier-history. Foote manages to weave a basic useful observation in each aspect of the account, I think: In short, this history is about the way in which, early in the war, the union uniformly divided its energies against a weaker enemy, and lost; and how the confederation divided its energies against a stronger enemy, and gained. After 1863, the tactics started to be reversed and the results changed: the union started to concentrate its higher forces, and gained; and the confederation concentrated its forces of reduction, and lost. This history overarching works to include/understand each IN SENS OF the NEEDLES Of a WATCH event, and Foote does not let it become the "explicit thesis," but it manages to make him the stand outside as manner of including/understanding what occurred, one which really did me the word, "aha." Positive I could not put the book(s) downwards.


The best historical work of the 20th Century!
The history of 3-volume of Shelby Foote of the civil war reads more like one fast novel than a broad history. All the characters well- are covered, just as the strategies of battle and the crises political facing the two sides. The tension goes up with each new battle while Lincoln seeks the Generals who will really fight and as Davis milked the problems of the combat a war broad-before with little provides and of the men. In almost each made battle, the South was outgunned and outmanned. However the confederation managed to make with this end of war four years and hundreds of cost of the thousands of the lives. Foote does a work remarkable to explain clearly how this is accomplished. The brilliance of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson is shown in the battle after battle, just as the incompetence blundering of the majority of their counterparts of the trade unions. In the same way, the solved persistence of Ulysses Grant and the tenacity of Sherman in the Western theatre are presented in the contrast of strike at their confederated counterparts Bragg and Joe Johnston. In all this whole we have the political combat body-with-body in Washington and Richmond, the international intrigue while confederated seek the identification and the intervention foreign, and the preparing of industrial north to fight the war. And in all the whole one, we read the private diaries and the letters of the common soldiers who ream the shock to fight for a cause few them included/understood. That Foote can completely depict all these stories interlaced on only 2800 pages is a remarkable achievement in oneself, but the greatest achievement of this unit is the prose by which is presented. The writing of Foote is simply principal and shoulders above that of any other historian of the 20th century (except perhaps David McCullough). I read that this work was criticized because of confederated sympathies of Foote and of the lack of footnotes. Potential readers should not be frightened with far by such absurd expenses. Foote so much does not sympathize with the South while it sympathizes with oppressed and cannot help but wonder how they withdraw so many miraculous blows in the battle. Ni can it sit down behind and be unaware of that the majority of the Generals of the trade unions in the Eastern theatre were, as well as possible, useless. However, Foote gives the credit rating uniformly where the credit rating is due, in particular by congratulating the dregs, Jackson, Forrest, Longstreet, Grant, Hancock, and Sherman while showing scorn for Joe Johnston, Braxton Bragg, Burnside, talonnor, and McClellan. And it shows the enormous respect for the capacities of President Lincoln. As for the footnotes, this should be considered narrarative, not a historical treaty. Doesn't Foote treat this like doctoral thesis, nor would owe the reader. It, is simply put, the best historical work produced by an American author at the 20th century.


UNRIVALED AND LIKELY TO REMAIN THAT WAY
I really did not finish the third volume, but it is really the historian with his finest. He brings cold facts to the life. An honest historian, but a large storyteller. A word on the prospect, although it is essential little, he does not take sides because he identifies that there is no more on the sides: Written by an Inhabitant of the south, thus to the Inhabitant of eccentric North it can seem like it has a southernmost polarization, but to the reasonable person, it is clear that Foote can see what was worth the sorrow to preserve in the South, but also identifies what was worst. In any event, it is a authorative history of the war and Americans who fought in it.


Sets the standard for narrative history
The opus of the magnum of Foote is the essential history of the civil war. While it is long, space is not wasted or useless -- it simply of the catches these much of pages to present the events in at proportioned detail. Foote almost never makes any judgement on the events which occurred. It says simply, in prose clear and astute, which occurred. There are some "which Statistics financial international," but he will not say to you if the dregs or Grant were a better General, or will deliver his opinion on any of the others polemize about the war. The judgement calls and of the conclusions are left to the reader. If you seek a book to say to you what to think of the civil war, this is not for you. But if you want to then discover the events which occurred in order to decide for yourself, you cannot make to improve. One of the best devices of work is its evenhandedness geographical. The majority of the fast insurances of the war maintain a hearth rather tight on the conflict in Scandinavian Virginia, with occasional blows of eye out of west for principal events such as the fall of Vicksburg. Foote gives the decisive events in the Western weight equal to those in Virginia, and also gives an attention detailed to the campaigns in the west of Mississippi. By him all, Foote does an authoritative work to maintain wire multiple of the events clear. It is an art for saying multiple simultaneous stories without confusing, annoying, or to frustrate the reader, and Foote draws with far this difficult charge with a competence which them marks it seem almost without effort. Foote also includes charts with each battle, to help the reader to visualize the conflicts.


HOW to read this
If you want to know survive you should read this or not, there is a good number of people who can review this book better than me. I would like to say to you HOW to read this. I am a slow reader but impassioned, thus when I begin a book, it often consumes me until I finish. If you are this type, take guard, will lose you years in addition to your life unless you have a plan. The books are massive and detailed and you will want to follow all the details. I never had a good direction for Juste how long the war took. De Lincoln the election with the fall of the confederation took approximately 4 years of 1/2. My suggestion is that you take that a long time to read the book. For one, you will need the hour to digest all that occurs. Two, if you are a all-consuming reader, you will need a cut of time to other. And the last, but most important, you will obtain a first hand appreciation for Juste how long the war took. When you are finished, you will look at behind on all the things which occurred in your life while you had read and suddenly you will start to realize just which quantity of lives of the people this war consumed. That arrived at me, and it was a major experiment of my arrangement of the war. It is right this kind of personal attachment with what perspired that the author brings his marvellous prose outside. Yes, others can spend more time on the social and political effects of the war, but this book lets to you test the war itself and makes it possible to the reader to frame these events to better include/understand how this war changed for always the course of our country.


The ultimate Civil War experience...............
No matter who with the lightest interest for the war between the states must read this book. I thus read many efforts of civil war and finds the superior of Shelby Foote in each manner. Detailed, however strongly readable, Mr. Foote carries you on a voyage of the beginning until the end which provides suggests more, pleasant glance with the conflict which I ever found. The civil war is a historical chief of work from any point of view.


The beauty of Foote's narrative is...
... this it does not concentrate simply on the goings above between Washington and Richmond. Too many historians of civil war concentrate on the failure-match between the army of Potomac and the army of Scandinavian Virginia. Where Foote excels is by telling the ENTIRETY make the war. The principal stage of Scandinavian Virginia is given its due; however, the Western campaigns are shown in detail remarkable. Even some of the less known parts of the war are indicated, like the development of H.L. Hunley and events Florida and in New Mexico. No detail seems to escape from the eye of Foote; consequently, a broader image of the great conflict is shown. The history is full with the tragedies; Foote gives to those their due as well. In a direction, the ' hero ' of work is Jefferson Davis; Foote lavishes the attention on this figure badly included/understood of the war, and shows it as a proud man trying to hold a country of disintegration with flood. Other small details give to the history a human aspect; you will be horrified with the description of Hunley are used as team-member, and will be cooled with the orders of Hancock for a counter-attack at Gettysburg. It is a work which will transform a not-ventilator of the history into fanatic of history - as with me made him years ago.


Pure but excellent narrative
I wouldn't argue with 5 stars for this. It is a purely narrative account, detailed, well-written, never dull. Who did what when, and some insight into character too. I preferred MacPherson's more analytical account, and some of the more specialized books, but this is the longest book I have ever read, and I enjoyed it all. That says something good about it! If you are only going to read one 3500 page book on the civil war ...


A masterpiece of Civil War literature.
The Civil war De Shelby Foote ": An account "was described by of the same critics and readers like"... traditional of its kind." That took in Foote 16 years and more than 2.800 pages to indicate the history of the bloodiest war and most tragic of America. "The Civil war: An account "is a long voyage, but one which I found interesting good the catch. Foote is a Master to weave the personalities and the events of the civil war in an account without seam and captivating often. One of the great beauties of this trilogy is the capacity of Foote to hold the interest of the reader (it considered fascinated me by each three volume) for long transport with its flutter, prose almost musical. Naturally, all the principal battles - strong Sumter with Appomattox, with stops with the bullfight, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, the desert, the cold port, and others - jump enough, in all their horror, of the pages of these volumes to the hands of this gifted author. But best Foote put. Less famous battles (C-with-D., pea edge, Perryville, seven days), minor skirmishes, and other events, which receive the small confidence or a reference of going beyond at best in the majority of the accounts of a-volume of the civil war, receive a treatment much fuller here (two typical examples of this are failures of the UNITED STATES Grant general seven on the river of Mississippi like it tried to obtain its army below Vicksburg, and cavalry of colonel Benjamin Grierson plunder by Mississippi in 1863.) In spite of the complaints of some criticisms which show Foote "of southernmost polarization" in its writing, I found the account of the author of the civil war to be right and the objective. Three volumes also seem to be quite founded on full historical research. However, I would have preferred to see quotations of footnote or final note of the sources of the author, a more complete bibliography. "The Civil war: An account "is a marvellous experiment of reading. Rich person in detail, by eloquence written, and impregnated with the purse of first order, it gives to readers a precise arrangement of the people and events which composed the bloodiest conflict of America. For readers (as me) who want to include/understand the civil war, how it was fought, gain, and lose, "the civil war: An account "is essential. It is central work in my library of civil war.


The benchmark against which all others are measured.
I've read many civil war books and still Shelby Foote's work ranks tops among them all. Written with the skill of an experienced novelist and researched with the eye for detail of a veteran historian Foote captures the sweeping grandeur of the war and the myriad of details about those who were caught up in it. I cannot recomment this book enough.


Can drag, but is still good.
Shelby Foote gives an epic account of a truly epic war, and does it fairly well. I will have to note to those thinking of reading this book, however, is that it can lag at times in the first book, but if you hang in there it will really pick up. You won't regret reading it.


A Definitive Work on Civil War
I became a "ventilator" of the civil war, until the degree that any person can become a ventilator of a war, after Ken of observation burned the excellent series on PBS. I then started to learn more about the war, and with reading, above the course of the years, the chief of work of three volumes of Shelby Foote. I can state without reservation which it was one to enrich by the experiments of reading of my life. In mendoza pulleys of Foote, the characters of the conflict, north and the South, come alive. It is not unaware of the war out of the west, and milked battles such as Vicksburg, Shiloh, New-Orleans and other innumerable with the precision and the attention. It slightly has slope of the Inhabitants of the south, but it is not also persistent as for are unaware of the gala