What do you think?
Rate this book
The Civil War Telecourse Student Guide
Produced and directed by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, the PBS television series THE CIVIL WAR taps more than 16,000 photographs and 150 archives. With the help of such notables as Shelby Foote, James McPherson, Jason Robards, and Garrison Keillor, the series vividly embraces the entire sweep of the the complex causes and lasting effects, the battles and the home fronts, the generals and the ordinary soldiers. This student guide outlines a nine-week course of study that amounts to a complete college credit course.
Paperback
First published December 1, 1975
222 people are currently reading
1927 people want to read
About the author
Ken Burns
103 books137 followersKenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in documentary films. His widely known documentary series include The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Prohibition, The Roosevelts, and The Vietnam War.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
July 23, 2020
This is the companion volume to the ground-breaking PBS TV series “The Civil War” by Ken Burns. I have watched this a few times since it was released in 1989 and it really is superlative.
If you are to have one book on the U.S. Civil War this would be it. The remarkable photographs and text illustrate vividly the characters and the background to the Civil War. The personalities range from the mighty (Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas) to the lowly foot soldiers whose diaries the writers used to give details on the daily life during this era.
One gets, from the many pictures in this book and the myriad portraits, a perspective of the turbulence of this time period. As Shelby Foote said the Civil War is the ultimate event in U.S. history. There was the America before the Civil War and a different America after the Civil War. It resounds to this day.
If you are to have one book on the U.S. Civil War this would be it. The remarkable photographs and text illustrate vividly the characters and the background to the Civil War. The personalities range from the mighty (Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas) to the lowly foot soldiers whose diaries the writers used to give details on the daily life during this era.
One gets, from the many pictures in this book and the myriad portraits, a perspective of the turbulence of this time period. As Shelby Foote said the Civil War is the ultimate event in U.S. history. There was the America before the Civil War and a different America after the Civil War. It resounds to this day.
August 5, 2019
I think I understand what military fame is: to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.
—William Tecumseh Sherman
This documentary was long overdue. Aside from the basic overview, my knowledge of the American Civil War was embarrassingly sketchy; and I had also never seen anything by Ken Burns. Virtually everyone I know who has seen this documentary speaks about it in reverential tones. It lives up to the reputation. The eleven hours are packed with maps, dates, quotes, and most of all—stories. This is a history that focuses on individuals.
A documentary about a war that happened a century and a half ago, beyond all living memory, could easily have become dry and distant. But Ken Burns and his team overcome this obstacle through the dual use of photographs and quotes. The Ken Burns Effect has already entered common parlance, and you can see it displayed to great effect with these old photographs: the slow pan and zoom recreating, somewhat, the feel of watching a film. Combined with quotes of the men and women involved—soldiers, statesmen, generals, diarists—brought to life using voice actors, the watcher enters a bewitchingly immersive experience.
The war becomes, not merely troop movements on the screen, but an enormous catastrophe that our protagonists must live through. This gives the series an emotional force rare in documentaries. The horrors of war are the same as ever: seeing comrades fall, leaving children and widows behind, disease, malnutrition, homesickness, ghastly wounds, and the ever-present drudgery punctuated by moments of extreme terror. Some of the most disturbing images are of Yankee prisoners-of-war, totally emaciated through lack of food. Combined with this are the horrors of slavery, so central to the conflict, and the upheaval of the lives of so many civilians.
Virtually everything is well-done. McCullough brings both seriousness and sadness to the narration. The voice actors are uniformly convincing and effective. The music, too, goes a long way in recreating the mood and atmosphere of the times. Most of the guests were, however, rather unremarkable, with the notable exception of Shelby Foote, who was an endless trove of amusing and touching anecdotes. I can see how the documentary catapulted him to fame.
The series is not above criticism, however. Burns focuses most of his attention on the battlefield. This has the double benefit of being exciting and of avoiding the war’s most controversial issues. But I think the series should have delved far deeper into the causes of the war. I would also have appreciated far more about civilian life during wartime, rather than hearing mainly from soldiers and generals. Even Abraham Lincoln, though he makes his due appearances, is given far less space than a private in the Union Army. Such a wider scope would have made the documentary longer, more controversial, and perhaps more superficially boring; but as it stands the war’s immense political and historical significance is difficult to fathom from the documentary alone.
We are left with a rosy picture of the elderly veterans embracing on Gettysburg, with the war as a bad dream or even a glorious affair. Indeed, our species has been struggling to reconcile the heroic and the barbaric aspects of war since Homer wrote The Iliad. And it seems we still have not been able to face the horrors without including some shades of the bravery, the camaraderie, the brilliant strategy, to brighten up the picture. But the truth is that every war is a moral collapse, and this one was compounded by the taint of slavery. It is an extremely depressing picture, which may get somewhat obscured by the folksiness of this documentary.
March 26, 2018
I eagerly watched the Series when it debuted on PBS last century and was blown away by the quality and became a fan of Ken Burns then. This book was never on my radar and I have a superb Civil War library but now I am proud to have this comprehensive history in a place of honor.
This book does a superb job of telling the history of the Civil War chronologically. The book is more than that though because, like the tv series, this work comes alive with the words and feelings of men and women who were there. There are new essays from amazing historians including Shelby Foote that help make this a must purchase for even those who know the TV series well.
A fantastic read that will be on my re-read list and a candidate for a desert island.
My Rating: 5+ stars
This review first appeared on N. N. Light's Book Heaven: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/si...
This book does a superb job of telling the history of the Civil War chronologically. The book is more than that though because, like the tv series, this work comes alive with the words and feelings of men and women who were there. There are new essays from amazing historians including Shelby Foote that help make this a must purchase for even those who know the TV series well.
A fantastic read that will be on my re-read list and a candidate for a desert island.
My Rating: 5+ stars
This review first appeared on N. N. Light's Book Heaven: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/si...
May 17, 2024
This book has the complete text from the PBS Civil War documentary by Ken Burns. Including several essays by Civil War historians. I really liked the 23-page interview which Ken Burns did with Civil War historian Shelby Foote who published a three-volume book about the Civil War which took him 20 years to complete. Very interesting. I will say that I do wish that it contained all the stills that were used in the documentary, but all it has is the occasional map. The book encompasses the entire Civil War but in such a way that it only glides over the surface of most of the events of that time. A very good history but it doesn't have the impact that the visual documentary had.
October 21, 2015
Fantastic. This and "Battle Cry of Freedom" are the best books I have read about the Civil War. This one will satisfy the part of you that wants visuals more, with lots of great old photos.
November 29, 2008
You may have purchased this book when Ken Burns' classic and genre defining documentary was broadcast. And you may have relegated this book to your coffee table because it is a big, heavy volume. But please, get it off the table, sit comfortably, put it in your lap and read it. It has hundreds of pictures, many liner notes and loads of insightful essays so the actual text is not terribly long. In fact, despite is daunting size the actual history of the war can only really be a summary. If you want a detailed account you will need to read the volumes and volumes of work by Catton or Foote. This book will provide you with a helpful summary of the war along with detailed accounts of what lead to it and some interesting human interest stories. Borrow it, buy it, swap for it, but if you have an interest in American history, read it!
March 28, 2022
The Civil War is an essential read in American history, and interestingly, much can be gleaned and give to modern perspectives on contemporary political affairs, global and American, today.
War appears to be a raw deal for regular people, and the American Civil War is certainly no exception, but provides a great example of how that is so. Consider this: the confederacy, fighting for state rights (and especially the right to hold slaves) instituted the first draft in American history. People were conscripted to fight a gruesome war where they were likely to die slowly on a battlefield with a wound that would leave them there for days. But, the people drafted to fight were not slaveholders! Slaveholders were exempt from draft. How about that? The people called to and forced to fight a war about slavery were poor people, not plantation owners, and the people the war was fought for didn't have to fight! Such is a sad reality of much war... People with money and power sacrifice people without money and power for their own gain. State rights indeed...
This inequality in conscription however, was not limited fully to the south. Later, the union opened its own conscription, and while northerners weren't slaveholders, if they had enough money, they could buy their way out of being drafted. Again, those with money don't have to fight. Those without money do have to fight.
Were people gleeful to be drafted? Not exactly. In the union there were riots in several major cities. In Manhattan, mobs of Irish, who faced some discrimation themselves, were none too happy to fight a war to end slavery. They took out their rage by.... Burning down black neighborhoods, including church buildings, and lynching black people. (These rioters don't represent most people who were drafted, nor most Irish Americans I'm sure, but are worth noting.)
The income tax was established during the Civil War. Here is where it was born. And like most taxes, it never went away. Sort of an interesting thing to realize.
After the war, it has become popular to perpetuate the myth that the civi war was mostly about state rights, not about slavery. But, this is simply not true. Secession happened after the election of Abraham Lincoln, someone who aimed to stop the spread of slavery. The secession effort began shortly after his election in reaction to it and the implications toward slavery in specific.
It is actually mildly ironic that the confederacy would form in reaction to Lincoln. Lincoln was not originally an abolitionist, at least not officially. In fact, in the early parts of the war, slaves who escaped to the north were.... Sent back to their slave holders. Abraham Lincoln was behind this decision, and had even punished other leaders with forced resignation when they failed to obey this instruction. Abraham Lincoln had even said he'd rather the union be preserved with slavery than lose the states over slavery. As things shifted, obviously his position became bolder, eventually declaring the emancipation of all slaves. But in the early parts of the war, this was not the plan.
What can be made of General Sherman's "peeling" of the soil, destroying all infrastructure, burning barns, houses, entire cities as he marched to Savannah? He believed it necessary to crush the southern people, to starve them of everything and destroy all function for civilians, if he was to crush the rebellion. Well, it eventually worked, but was it okay to declare total war and raze American cities to do so? Much of the southern rage toward the union, resentment which would go long past the war, was due to this total war policy. For decades after the war, much of the South would be ripe for exploitation, with poverty and stagnation and economic dependency. This was not good for anyone, least of all black people who would suffer the rage and wrath of "new regimes of White supremacy."
About white supremacy.. The argument that the confederacy was about state rights more than slavery can be approached with a number of interesting events. The south didn't allow black people to fight in the war until the very end. This was because they believed blacks to be inferior, and thought also that if blacks were allowed to fight, then how could slavery be justified. The north however, ended up with as much as 1/5 of its military to toward the end of the war made up of black soldiers. (Worth noting they were paid $10/month compared with the white man's $13.) Little doubt that the decision to allow black people to fight for the union army helped win the war.
Interestingly and appallingly, when union soldiers were forced to surrender in certain battles, whites were allowed to. The saying was "save the whites, kill the [racist term against black people.]" They would keep white prisoners but bludgeon the surrendering blacks to death. The war, whether Lincoln intended for it to be this way or not, was most definitely about race and slavery for the south, more than any other state rights. State rights, ironically, were far less during the war for the confederate states, forced to pay taxes they didn't want to pay, forced to fight when people didn't want to, and as was the case up north, there was a suspension in many cases of habeas corpus.
The war was a true tragedy. So much slaughter. People were so happy for it to end, to an extent on both sides. And then an egomaniac actor brought the nation more pain. John Wilkes Booth, a "feverish supporter of slavery and white supremacy" got his vengeance on Lincoln, which was the first time a US president was murdered in American history. It brought so much additional pain to everyone and ultimately accomplished nothing. The vision of Abraham Lincoln, and what might have been after the war, we were all robbed of. Who knows how much different American history would have played out if the unusually great leader, Abraham Lincoln, had been still alive. One can't help but feel rage even today, realizing how much harm Booth caused the nation and its legacy.
The book doesn't go too far in depth about the post years, but notes that they weren't so great. People were very burned out from the tragedy of such a brutal civil war. The absolutism of abolitionism had been watered way down for pragmatism and compromise. Often, the compromises that came after the war undid much of what the Civil War should have been fighting for. Though black people were no longer slaves, the decades following the Civil War would be cruel to them with a lot of laws put in place to keep them down and make their lives miserable. There was great exploitation and unprecedented corruption in the politics that followed the Civil War. A shame that something so terrible couldn't have kept more principles in place, and protected against so much of the terrible things that were still to come.
Great book. Essential reading. I'm sure there are others in this vein. Maybe a better civil war book exists, but this one certainly provides a wonderful, detailed, and nuanced overview.
War appears to be a raw deal for regular people, and the American Civil War is certainly no exception, but provides a great example of how that is so. Consider this: the confederacy, fighting for state rights (and especially the right to hold slaves) instituted the first draft in American history. People were conscripted to fight a gruesome war where they were likely to die slowly on a battlefield with a wound that would leave them there for days. But, the people drafted to fight were not slaveholders! Slaveholders were exempt from draft. How about that? The people called to and forced to fight a war about slavery were poor people, not plantation owners, and the people the war was fought for didn't have to fight! Such is a sad reality of much war... People with money and power sacrifice people without money and power for their own gain. State rights indeed...
This inequality in conscription however, was not limited fully to the south. Later, the union opened its own conscription, and while northerners weren't slaveholders, if they had enough money, they could buy their way out of being drafted. Again, those with money don't have to fight. Those without money do have to fight.
Were people gleeful to be drafted? Not exactly. In the union there were riots in several major cities. In Manhattan, mobs of Irish, who faced some discrimation themselves, were none too happy to fight a war to end slavery. They took out their rage by.... Burning down black neighborhoods, including church buildings, and lynching black people. (These rioters don't represent most people who were drafted, nor most Irish Americans I'm sure, but are worth noting.)
The income tax was established during the Civil War. Here is where it was born. And like most taxes, it never went away. Sort of an interesting thing to realize.
After the war, it has become popular to perpetuate the myth that the civi war was mostly about state rights, not about slavery. But, this is simply not true. Secession happened after the election of Abraham Lincoln, someone who aimed to stop the spread of slavery. The secession effort began shortly after his election in reaction to it and the implications toward slavery in specific.
It is actually mildly ironic that the confederacy would form in reaction to Lincoln. Lincoln was not originally an abolitionist, at least not officially. In fact, in the early parts of the war, slaves who escaped to the north were.... Sent back to their slave holders. Abraham Lincoln was behind this decision, and had even punished other leaders with forced resignation when they failed to obey this instruction. Abraham Lincoln had even said he'd rather the union be preserved with slavery than lose the states over slavery. As things shifted, obviously his position became bolder, eventually declaring the emancipation of all slaves. But in the early parts of the war, this was not the plan.
What can be made of General Sherman's "peeling" of the soil, destroying all infrastructure, burning barns, houses, entire cities as he marched to Savannah? He believed it necessary to crush the southern people, to starve them of everything and destroy all function for civilians, if he was to crush the rebellion. Well, it eventually worked, but was it okay to declare total war and raze American cities to do so? Much of the southern rage toward the union, resentment which would go long past the war, was due to this total war policy. For decades after the war, much of the South would be ripe for exploitation, with poverty and stagnation and economic dependency. This was not good for anyone, least of all black people who would suffer the rage and wrath of "new regimes of White supremacy."
About white supremacy.. The argument that the confederacy was about state rights more than slavery can be approached with a number of interesting events. The south didn't allow black people to fight in the war until the very end. This was because they believed blacks to be inferior, and thought also that if blacks were allowed to fight, then how could slavery be justified. The north however, ended up with as much as 1/5 of its military to toward the end of the war made up of black soldiers. (Worth noting they were paid $10/month compared with the white man's $13.) Little doubt that the decision to allow black people to fight for the union army helped win the war.
Interestingly and appallingly, when union soldiers were forced to surrender in certain battles, whites were allowed to. The saying was "save the whites, kill the [racist term against black people.]" They would keep white prisoners but bludgeon the surrendering blacks to death. The war, whether Lincoln intended for it to be this way or not, was most definitely about race and slavery for the south, more than any other state rights. State rights, ironically, were far less during the war for the confederate states, forced to pay taxes they didn't want to pay, forced to fight when people didn't want to, and as was the case up north, there was a suspension in many cases of habeas corpus.
The war was a true tragedy. So much slaughter. People were so happy for it to end, to an extent on both sides. And then an egomaniac actor brought the nation more pain. John Wilkes Booth, a "feverish supporter of slavery and white supremacy" got his vengeance on Lincoln, which was the first time a US president was murdered in American history. It brought so much additional pain to everyone and ultimately accomplished nothing. The vision of Abraham Lincoln, and what might have been after the war, we were all robbed of. Who knows how much different American history would have played out if the unusually great leader, Abraham Lincoln, had been still alive. One can't help but feel rage even today, realizing how much harm Booth caused the nation and its legacy.
The book doesn't go too far in depth about the post years, but notes that they weren't so great. People were very burned out from the tragedy of such a brutal civil war. The absolutism of abolitionism had been watered way down for pragmatism and compromise. Often, the compromises that came after the war undid much of what the Civil War should have been fighting for. Though black people were no longer slaves, the decades following the Civil War would be cruel to them with a lot of laws put in place to keep them down and make their lives miserable. There was great exploitation and unprecedented corruption in the politics that followed the Civil War. A shame that something so terrible couldn't have kept more principles in place, and protected against so much of the terrible things that were still to come.
Great book. Essential reading. I'm sure there are others in this vein. Maybe a better civil war book exists, but this one certainly provides a wonderful, detailed, and nuanced overview.
August 18, 2023
The Civil War: An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns, and Ken Burns (Alfred A. Knopf 1990) (973.7) (3850).
This is the companion volume to Ken Burns’ brilliant film documentary “The Civil War.” It turns out that this amazing film is also stunning in book form as well.
The book closely tracks the film; in this case, that’s a very good thing, for the documentary was an excellent example of storytelling.
I purchased a HB copy of this in my local used book story in like-new condition for $0.75 on 6/1/22.
My rating: 7/10, finished 8/17/23 (3850).
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
October 7, 2012
This was a great book, I also watched the series on PBS and to hear first hand the words from diaries,letters and the memories of the people still able to remember the events of the civil war was amazing.....like being there. It is like they are speaking right to you from beyond this earthly realm. The loyalty and faith great leaders on both sides inspired in their men who would follow them unconditionally stand up for their beliefs.... was inspiring. At times no food, odds against them,when it looked like all hope was lost they picked themselves up to fight for what they thought was right. The belief on both sides for what they each thought was the right thing comes thru in every page. The unbelievable suffering, sacrifices so many made and the losses of the ones they left behind is incredible. So many brothers, uncles, fathers lost. This is a must read for all. It should be in the school curriculum and if I were a history teacher it would be required reading for my class. :)
March 22, 2018
A wonderful supplement to the amazing Ken Burns documentary. It can stand on its own as a one volume summary of the Civil War. Although, I would say to choose the documentary before this.
February 26, 2024
This book strikes differently knowing how attitudes towards the Civil War in particular the Confederacy has changed since 2017. With the erasure of one side’s monuments and memorials and the cancellation of re-enactments like at VMI, I feel that these kinds of books should be read more than ever. 685,000 Americans died in the Civil War. That is more fatalities than any other conflict that the US has fought in combined, They died on the battlefield and of disease. There are many warhawks in the halls of Congress today who want to see more Americans die in wars but not for just causes like uniting our country and overthrowing slavery. We need to read these kinds of books to remind us that war is hell and should not be entered in lightly by the US.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to revisit the Fredericksburg battlefield.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to revisit the Fredericksburg battlefield.
February 27, 2018
Only two hours and excerpted from the PBS documentary series. After listening to an hour, I found the series on Netflix and started watching. Still finished up the audio book, though, because it's interesting.
February 5, 2023
3.5 Great book for dipping my toe into one of the most written about events in American history. Recommended for an easy overview of the long, terrible war.
January 28, 2024
Excellent overview of the American Civil War.
November 5, 2025
The Ken Burns pbs doc team rocks. Shout out Geoff ward too he’s actually the author. Great read to brush up on your civil war history and the photographs are striking. I weep for our nation as many people fail to recognize the greatness we have and listen to sycophants feign outrage against our own brother citizens.
October 24, 2021
Goosebump-inducing. Absolutely stunning. If I could give it 6 stars, I would.
This is the companion book to what was possibly the best documentary ever made, Ken Burns 11.5 hour epic “The Civil War”. Burns spent five years researching and producing it – one year longer than the war itself took – pouring through thousands of photographs, interviewing prominent Civil War historians such as Shelby Foote and James McPherson, and paying attention to the both the larger historical context for the War and at the same time poignant personal stories. Among other things, he invented what came to be known as the “Ken Burns effect”, the slow zooming and panning across photos, which has since been adopted by many other filmmakers.
The book does the documentary justice. It contains over 500 photographs and illustrations and is truly beautiful. There are of course all the “big” things you’d expect: the genius of Lincoln as politician, preserver of the Union, commander-in-chief, and orator. The pompous and overly cautious General McClellan, who after being replaced would run against Lincoln in the election of 1864. (As an aside, the picture of their last meeting that Burns includes says everything about the personalities and relationship Lincoln and McClellan had.) The public turning out to watch the First Battle of Bull Run from a nearby hill, as if it were theater. The horrors of slavery and the blatant racism of the 19th century, set against the gentility of the Southern way of life. The horrors of battlefield carnage, set against the incredible bravery and valor of soldiers who sometimes found themselves fighting on the opposite side of relatives or friends from before the war. The genius of the Southern Generals like Robert E. Lee of course, but also Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who despite having a two to one disadvantage in armed forces had the South within a battle or two of improbably winning the war.
American men of letters are here: Herman Melville recognizing the significance of Jackson’s death in his poems, one ending, “By the edge of those wilds Stonewall had charged – but the year and the Man were gone.” Walt Whitman, after having worked in the appalling Union hospitals, saying “Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best that they should not. The real war will never get in the books.”
If that’s true, Burns must surely come close. There is no way to do his work justice in a review, but I’ll close with two scenes that have stuck to me all these years after having seen the documentary and read the book. They are indelible and unforgettable.
The first, after the battle of Fredericksburg on December 11, 1862, former college professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (and then commander of the 20th Maine), hearing the wounded at night on the freezing battlefield:
“But out of that silence…rose new sounds more appalling still…a strange ventriloquism, of which you could not locate the source, a smothered moan…as if a thousand discords were flowing together into a key-note weird, unearthly, terrible to hear and bear, yet startling with its nearness; the writhing concord broken by cries for help…some begging for a drop of water, some calling on God for pity; and some on friendly hands to finish what the enemy had so horribly begun; some with delirious, dreamy voices murmuring loved ones names, as if the dearest were bending over them; and underneath, all the time, the deep bass note from closed lips too hopeless, or too heroic to articulate their agony.”
…and then after scraping out shallow graves for the dead, and looking up to see the Northern Lights dancing in the winter sky. “Who would not pass on as they did,” he asked, “dead for their country’s life, and lighted to burial by the meteor splendors of their native sky?”
And the second moment, this letter, written by Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife a week before the first battle of Bull Run:
“July the 14th, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more...
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt…
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar—that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness…
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the brightest day and in the darkest night… always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again…”
Burns then notes that Sullivan Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run.
This is the companion book to what was possibly the best documentary ever made, Ken Burns 11.5 hour epic “The Civil War”. Burns spent five years researching and producing it – one year longer than the war itself took – pouring through thousands of photographs, interviewing prominent Civil War historians such as Shelby Foote and James McPherson, and paying attention to the both the larger historical context for the War and at the same time poignant personal stories. Among other things, he invented what came to be known as the “Ken Burns effect”, the slow zooming and panning across photos, which has since been adopted by many other filmmakers.
The book does the documentary justice. It contains over 500 photographs and illustrations and is truly beautiful. There are of course all the “big” things you’d expect: the genius of Lincoln as politician, preserver of the Union, commander-in-chief, and orator. The pompous and overly cautious General McClellan, who after being replaced would run against Lincoln in the election of 1864. (As an aside, the picture of their last meeting that Burns includes says everything about the personalities and relationship Lincoln and McClellan had.) The public turning out to watch the First Battle of Bull Run from a nearby hill, as if it were theater. The horrors of slavery and the blatant racism of the 19th century, set against the gentility of the Southern way of life. The horrors of battlefield carnage, set against the incredible bravery and valor of soldiers who sometimes found themselves fighting on the opposite side of relatives or friends from before the war. The genius of the Southern Generals like Robert E. Lee of course, but also Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who despite having a two to one disadvantage in armed forces had the South within a battle or two of improbably winning the war.
American men of letters are here: Herman Melville recognizing the significance of Jackson’s death in his poems, one ending, “By the edge of those wilds Stonewall had charged – but the year and the Man were gone.” Walt Whitman, after having worked in the appalling Union hospitals, saying “Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best that they should not. The real war will never get in the books.”
If that’s true, Burns must surely come close. There is no way to do his work justice in a review, but I’ll close with two scenes that have stuck to me all these years after having seen the documentary and read the book. They are indelible and unforgettable.
The first, after the battle of Fredericksburg on December 11, 1862, former college professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (and then commander of the 20th Maine), hearing the wounded at night on the freezing battlefield:
“But out of that silence…rose new sounds more appalling still…a strange ventriloquism, of which you could not locate the source, a smothered moan…as if a thousand discords were flowing together into a key-note weird, unearthly, terrible to hear and bear, yet startling with its nearness; the writhing concord broken by cries for help…some begging for a drop of water, some calling on God for pity; and some on friendly hands to finish what the enemy had so horribly begun; some with delirious, dreamy voices murmuring loved ones names, as if the dearest were bending over them; and underneath, all the time, the deep bass note from closed lips too hopeless, or too heroic to articulate their agony.”
…and then after scraping out shallow graves for the dead, and looking up to see the Northern Lights dancing in the winter sky. “Who would not pass on as they did,” he asked, “dead for their country’s life, and lighted to burial by the meteor splendors of their native sky?”
And the second moment, this letter, written by Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife a week before the first battle of Bull Run:
“July the 14th, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more...
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt…
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar—that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness…
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the brightest day and in the darkest night… always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again…”
Burns then notes that Sullivan Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run.
March 13, 2013
For years my sole blood-brother (I've many step-brothers and a step-sister) lived in a small house on the outskirts of Sawyer, not far from Warren Dunes State Park alongside the western shore of Lake Michigan and a long walk south from where the ancestors had built a cottage during the first world war. The house had originally been purchased by his former wife, Miki, with whom he had become reconciled and with whom, indeed, he had had a daughter, without bothering to get remarried. Given the connections to the area long associated with the family and forever associated with our childhood summers, I visited the three of them there often, staying at the old cottage or, after we lost possession of it, with them.
Brother Fin is a reader, so I could usually count on his library having books of interest. Ward's The Civil War was one such book, read over the period of several visits. It is a picture book, but it doesn't stint on text as the appended description suggests. As a picture book, however, it is superlative.
Brother Fin is a reader, so I could usually count on his library having books of interest. Ward's The Civil War was one such book, read over the period of several visits. It is a picture book, but it doesn't stint on text as the appended description suggests. As a picture book, however, it is superlative.
October 26, 2023
I knew somewhat of this particular event in North American history and I always thought it was about race.
In reading this I know a little bit more about how the war was waged, the major players, and the reason for it beginning in the first place.
Now knowing it began more as an economical and territorial affair I have a very different perspective. I also always thought Lincoln to be this super chill character, really he was a total badass and had a bit of a temper.
Most history books only show you facts in black and white and that is a problem as both sides in this war, and really in every war, had their good and bad sides.
Having said all that, this book has really bad editing. It seems like the authors just had a lot of pictures and information that they just crammed wherever most of the time. It gets complicated to read because you lose focus with so many extracts from newspapers and pictures that don't have anything to do with what's being said in the chapter.
In reading this I know a little bit more about how the war was waged, the major players, and the reason for it beginning in the first place.
Now knowing it began more as an economical and territorial affair I have a very different perspective. I also always thought Lincoln to be this super chill character, really he was a total badass and had a bit of a temper.
Most history books only show you facts in black and white and that is a problem as both sides in this war, and really in every war, had their good and bad sides.
Having said all that, this book has really bad editing. It seems like the authors just had a lot of pictures and information that they just crammed wherever most of the time. It gets complicated to read because you lose focus with so many extracts from newspapers and pictures that don't have anything to do with what's being said in the chapter.
March 31, 2021
This hefty "coffee table" book is worth way more than 5 stars. As Americans, we all know bits and pieces of the Civil War. Some of us know more, of course. But this was my first time to read the whole story in a continuous timeline. (Yes, I watched Ken Burns' PBS documentary, but that was long ago.) The book is full of amazing photos and quotes from soldiers and others that made the whole story come alive. And the many maps are attractive and clear.
The book was given to me by a friend who was purging his shelves. It stared back at me for four years before I finally picked it up to have a go. And that was a lucky thing.
This tome has put me on a Civil War kick. I'm now eager for books that delve deeper into the people and the events along the timeline.
The book was given to me by a friend who was purging his shelves. It stared back at me for four years before I finally picked it up to have a go. And that was a lucky thing.
This tome has put me on a Civil War kick. I'm now eager for books that delve deeper into the people and the events along the timeline.
February 28, 2022
“Advance units of the Union army camped for the night on the old Chancellorsville battlefield, where winter rains had washed open the shallow Union and Confederate graves.
"It grew dark and we built a fire, a green private remembered." The dead were all around us; their eyeless skulls seemed to stare steadily at us...The trees swayed and sighed gently in the soft wind. As we sat smoking...an infantry soldier who had...been prying [into the ground] with his bayonet suddenly rolled a skull on the ground
before us and said in a deep, low voice: 'That is what you are all coming to, and some of you will start toward it tomorrow.'"
A fantastic narrative with classic, stunning and downright harrowing photos accompanying this journey through history.
"It grew dark and we built a fire, a green private remembered." The dead were all around us; their eyeless skulls seemed to stare steadily at us...The trees swayed and sighed gently in the soft wind. As we sat smoking...an infantry soldier who had...been prying [into the ground] with his bayonet suddenly rolled a skull on the ground
before us and said in a deep, low voice: 'That is what you are all coming to, and some of you will start toward it tomorrow.'"
A fantastic narrative with classic, stunning and downright harrowing photos accompanying this journey through history.
July 25, 2019
The history I missed.
Hated history as a kid. Can't seem to get enough of it now. Finally had to delve into our Civil War to catch up on what went in one ear and out the other in younger years. This was an excellent accounting of the many events that occurred through this tragedy that reshaped our nation. It brings extensive background details that that helped in understanding the the nuances that aren't covered in school books. Maybe it should be required reading for all politicians.
Hated history as a kid. Can't seem to get enough of it now. Finally had to delve into our Civil War to catch up on what went in one ear and out the other in younger years. This was an excellent accounting of the many events that occurred through this tragedy that reshaped our nation. It brings extensive background details that that helped in understanding the the nuances that aren't covered in school books. Maybe it should be required reading for all politicians.
June 6, 2022
Visual history that traces America’s bloodiest war from its beginnings to its end. The war is explained with excerpts from Union and Confederate soldiers’ journals, their citizens’ diaries, and famous speeches delivered by generals and politicians, while the visual story is told through black and white images, detailed maps, and glorified paintings.
If you want to fully understand what the war was like, this book is your best option!
If you want to fully understand what the war was like, this book is your best option!
August 7, 2007
This book gives a good overview of the Civil War era, touching on political, military, economic, and social developments. Purely an introduction, though--each battle is described in only a few pages and none of the events are truly flushed out, so more reading is necessary to get a deeper understanding.
July 4, 2012
This was the series that really made a name for Burns, and the coffee table book holds up as well - lavishly illustrated with photos, maps, etc. and liberally mixing history and personal stories, similar to Burns' documentary style. This is not the definitive written work on the Civil War, but it is an enjoyable work on its own merits.
February 14, 2020
My copy of this volume is an artifact: a nicely illustrated coffee table book in the ebook era. It covers the subject lightly, but well, is physically attractive, and is very readable. I’m not sure how well the many fine illustrations, including a good selection of maps, come out in the modern ebook versions.
April 17, 2008
Well, Ken Burns is one of my heroes. He is amazing. I love this book, and haven't finished it yet, but of course I fully intend to. The losses sustained in these battles were immense. I mean, some towns lost all of their men!
March 23, 2018
A book I reread often along with other Ken Burns and Shelby Foote narratives of this incredible time in our history. I just reread and rewatched the PBS special. I wonder if all of us in this day and age could survive what our ancestors did ? Now watching Baseball by Ken Burns!
March 7, 2019
The documentary created a new genre of storytelling. You feel the sorrow, sincerity and brutality of the War. Seeing the letters, pictures and comments from both scholar and soldier alike adds a special ingredient to the PBS series.
November 29, 2021
Nothing more needs to be said on this one. This companion book to one of the greatest documentaries ever is one that should be read by every American.
December 3, 2021
A good companion for the Ken Burn’s documentary or a good read on its own. Either way, it is a quality work on the most important event in American history.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews