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The New York Times Disunion: A History of the Civil War
Between 2011 and 2015, the Opinion section of The New York Times published Disunion, a series marking the long string of anniversaries around the Civil War, the most destructive, and most defining, conflict in American history. The works were startling in their range and direction, some taking on major topics, like the Gettysburg Address and the Battle of Fredericksburg, while others tackled subjects whose seemingly incidental quality yielded unexpected riches and new angles. Some come from the country's leading historians; others from those for whom the war figured in private ways, involving an ancestor or a letter found in a trunk. Disunion received wide acclaim for featuring some of the most original thinking about the Civil War in years. For millions of readers, Disunion came to define the Civil War sesquicentennial.
Now the historian Ted Widmer, along with Clay Risen and George Kalogerakis of The New York Times , has curated a collection of these pieces, covering the entire history of the Civil War, from Lincoln's election to Appomattox and beyond. Moving chronologically and thematically across all four years of hostilities, this comprehensive and engrossing work examines secession, slavery, battles, and domestic and global politics. Here are previously unheard voices-of women, freed African Americans, and Native Americans-alongside those of Lincoln, Grant, and Lee, portrayed in human as well as historical scale. David Blight sheds light on how Frederick Douglass welcomed South Carolina's secession-an event he knew would catapult the abolitionist movement into the spotlight; Elizabeth R. Varon explores how both North and South clamored to assert that the nation's "ladies," symbolic of moral purity, had sided with them; Harold Holzer deciphers Lincoln's official silence between his election to the
presidency and his inauguration-what his supporters named "masterful inactivity"-and the effects it had on the splintering country.
More than any single volume ever published, Disunion reveals the full spectrum of America's bloodiest conflict and illuminates its living legacies.
Now the historian Ted Widmer, along with Clay Risen and George Kalogerakis of The New York Times , has curated a collection of these pieces, covering the entire history of the Civil War, from Lincoln's election to Appomattox and beyond. Moving chronologically and thematically across all four years of hostilities, this comprehensive and engrossing work examines secession, slavery, battles, and domestic and global politics. Here are previously unheard voices-of women, freed African Americans, and Native Americans-alongside those of Lincoln, Grant, and Lee, portrayed in human as well as historical scale. David Blight sheds light on how Frederick Douglass welcomed South Carolina's secession-an event he knew would catapult the abolitionist movement into the spotlight; Elizabeth R. Varon explores how both North and South clamored to assert that the nation's "ladies," symbolic of moral purity, had sided with them; Harold Holzer deciphers Lincoln's official silence between his election to the
presidency and his inauguration-what his supporters named "masterful inactivity"-and the effects it had on the splintering country.
More than any single volume ever published, Disunion reveals the full spectrum of America's bloodiest conflict and illuminates its living legacies.
392 pages, Hardcover
Published October 13, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 20, 2017
The Civil War
This is an edited book with essays contributed by some of the well-known scholars in the field, with a fresh look at the history of the American conflict. The political perspectives of the leaders differed during the events leading to the war. But the determination to preserve a southern tradition of slavery lead to the bloodiest battle with the loss of a million lives. The book reviews the politics, economics and sociology of secession and slavery and the differing views of many historians.
The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the war began. Slavery was escalating political tension in the 1850s, and the Republican Party was determined to prevent any spread of slavery. But the Southern leaders had threatened secession if the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election. During the presidential campaign, Abraham Lincoln supported banning slavery in all the U.S. territories angering the Southern states that viewed slavery was their constitutional rights. But Lincoln won the election without carrying a single Southern state, and Southerners felt that disunion was their only option. Before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy, and in February 1861 they individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on cotton would intervene, but they did not and they never recognized the new Confederate States of America.
The causes of the war and the outcome are subjects of lingering contention today. The North and West grew rich while the once-rich South became poor for a century. The national political power of the slave owners and rich southerners were dwindling. Some scholars argue that the Union held an insurmountable long-term advantage over the Confederacy in industrial strength and population. To many Northerners the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, and progressively discouraging slavery.
I found the following essays interesting; “How the civil war created college football” by Amanda Bellows; “Remembering Gettysburg Address” by Joshua Zeitz; “Birth of Thanksgiving” by Paul Quigly; “The sound of Lincoln’s silence” by Harold Selzer; “Rewriting Gettysburg Address” by Martin Johnson; “The drought that changed the war” by Kenneth Noe; “The lone star state turns south” by Richard Parker; Humanity and hope in a southern prison” by Peter Cozzens; “The women at war” by Elizabeth Varon; “What Lincoln meant to the slaves” by Steven Hahn; and How Lincoln undid the slavery” by Richard Stringer.
This is an excellent review of civil war and I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, slavery and civil war era. This book also makes a good teaching tool at both high school and college.
This is an edited book with essays contributed by some of the well-known scholars in the field, with a fresh look at the history of the American conflict. The political perspectives of the leaders differed during the events leading to the war. But the determination to preserve a southern tradition of slavery lead to the bloodiest battle with the loss of a million lives. The book reviews the politics, economics and sociology of secession and slavery and the differing views of many historians.
The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the war began. Slavery was escalating political tension in the 1850s, and the Republican Party was determined to prevent any spread of slavery. But the Southern leaders had threatened secession if the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election. During the presidential campaign, Abraham Lincoln supported banning slavery in all the U.S. territories angering the Southern states that viewed slavery was their constitutional rights. But Lincoln won the election without carrying a single Southern state, and Southerners felt that disunion was their only option. Before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy, and in February 1861 they individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on cotton would intervene, but they did not and they never recognized the new Confederate States of America.
The causes of the war and the outcome are subjects of lingering contention today. The North and West grew rich while the once-rich South became poor for a century. The national political power of the slave owners and rich southerners were dwindling. Some scholars argue that the Union held an insurmountable long-term advantage over the Confederacy in industrial strength and population. To many Northerners the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, and progressively discouraging slavery.
I found the following essays interesting; “How the civil war created college football” by Amanda Bellows; “Remembering Gettysburg Address” by Joshua Zeitz; “Birth of Thanksgiving” by Paul Quigly; “The sound of Lincoln’s silence” by Harold Selzer; “Rewriting Gettysburg Address” by Martin Johnson; “The drought that changed the war” by Kenneth Noe; “The lone star state turns south” by Richard Parker; Humanity and hope in a southern prison” by Peter Cozzens; “The women at war” by Elizabeth Varon; “What Lincoln meant to the slaves” by Steven Hahn; and How Lincoln undid the slavery” by Richard Stringer.
This is an excellent review of civil war and I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, slavery and civil war era. This book also makes a good teaching tool at both high school and college.
April 18, 2017
Anyone interested in knowing facts about the American Civil War should buy this book or get it from the library. The book is filled with information which is hard to find elsewhere.
In 2010, The New York Times began to collect relatively short articles from over one hundred people who are knowledgeable about many aspects of the American Civil War and published them in its newspaper. In 2016, Oxford University Press issued this book which contains these essays within 374 pages, with a helpful ten-page index and seven pages describing the contributing authors.
The essays are grouped into ten sections: Secession, Slavery and Emancipation, Women and Home Front, The Battlefield, The West and Natïve Americans, Law and Rights, The Confederacy, The Civil War and the World, Abraham Lincoln and the Federal Government, and The Consequences of the Civil War.
Some of the more than a hundred essays are: Vanishing Slavery, What Lincoln Meant to the Slaves, Women at War, The Civil War’s Rip Van Winkle, The Boys of War, Humanity and Hope in a Southern Prison, How the West was Won, The Rise of the West, States’ Rights, But to What? Rape and Justice in the Civil War, Lincoln Answers his Critics, Why Bismarck Loved Lincoln, Lee Surrendered, But His Lieutenants Kept Fighting, Passover in the Confederacy, The Birth of Dixie, The Birth of Thanksgiving, How the Civil War Changed the World, and How Lincoln Became Our Favorite President.
The book contains interesting stories such as the one about Jenney Green, a “colored girl” who escaped slavery in 1864 and sought freedom and safety in the north, but was raped by a Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Calvary.
This sampling of the contents shows how extensive, diversified, and informative the information is in this volume.
In 2010, The New York Times began to collect relatively short articles from over one hundred people who are knowledgeable about many aspects of the American Civil War and published them in its newspaper. In 2016, Oxford University Press issued this book which contains these essays within 374 pages, with a helpful ten-page index and seven pages describing the contributing authors.
The essays are grouped into ten sections: Secession, Slavery and Emancipation, Women and Home Front, The Battlefield, The West and Natïve Americans, Law and Rights, The Confederacy, The Civil War and the World, Abraham Lincoln and the Federal Government, and The Consequences of the Civil War.
Some of the more than a hundred essays are: Vanishing Slavery, What Lincoln Meant to the Slaves, Women at War, The Civil War’s Rip Van Winkle, The Boys of War, Humanity and Hope in a Southern Prison, How the West was Won, The Rise of the West, States’ Rights, But to What? Rape and Justice in the Civil War, Lincoln Answers his Critics, Why Bismarck Loved Lincoln, Lee Surrendered, But His Lieutenants Kept Fighting, Passover in the Confederacy, The Birth of Dixie, The Birth of Thanksgiving, How the Civil War Changed the World, and How Lincoln Became Our Favorite President.
The book contains interesting stories such as the one about Jenney Green, a “colored girl” who escaped slavery in 1864 and sought freedom and safety in the north, but was raped by a Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Calvary.
This sampling of the contents shows how extensive, diversified, and informative the information is in this volume.
November 18, 2018
A collection of essays on the Civil War, Disunion examines the conflict from a variety of angles. While each essay is unique, they are similar in that they emphasize the significance of the war to the country as well as the world. The third chapter, Women and the Homefront, was the least varied of the chapters and emphasized the Homefront in broad terms more than the experiences of women. While there are plenty to chose from, Albert Cashier's Secret, The Nashville Experiment and The Civil War's Environmental Impact stand out as particularly thought provoking works.
November 25, 2017
This book is an anthology of the pieces that were written as part of the New York Times "Disunion" series, which began appearing online in the fall of 2010, continuing for the next five years as the newspaper commemorated the 150th anniversary of the nations's most traumatic event. I followed the series off and on, so by reading this book I was rereading many of the pieces, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. One of the most interesting parts of the experience of reading the original pieces was reading other readers' online comments which, not surprisingly, echoed the editor's (Edward Widmer) contention at the end of the book that in many ways the conflict continues to this day. The book is organized differently than the original essays, which appeared roughly chronologically, as they commented on events that had been taking place 150 years earlier. (The earliest original pieces, which appeared in the late fall of 2010, were therefore generally about secession.) The book takes a different approach, grouping the essays thematically: slavery, the west, the Confederacy, the battlefield, etc. Both approaches worked well, although one needs some background knowledge of the war in order to give a lot of the essays the proper context. Each of the major sections begins with an introduction that provide an overview of that particular part of the conflict. Some of the pieces review aspects of the war that are well known: South Carolina's secession, Benjamin Butler's controversial rule of New Orleans, the heroic story of the Massachusetts 54th, for instance. But other essays highlight some of the most esoteric stories: Humor and the war, the role of coffee in the armies, transgender soldiers, among others. So while this book will not take the place of the exhaustive treatment of the war in Shelby Foote's trilogy, or James McPherson's one volume "Battle Cry of Freedom," it does deserve a place on the Civil War bookshelf of a typical history buff.
June 4, 2023
This is a collection of short )2 1/2 -3 1/2 pages each) essays written by various historians and others commissioned by and published by the New York Times, mostly in its online edition, throughout the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Each essay addresses a single point or issue. This is not a mainstream history of the war; you wan't fine essays laying out the battle of Gettysburgh strategy or tactics. They reveal details about the war. If you are interested in Civil War history, you will find these essays to be sometimes fascinating and nearly always interesting.
While I read some of these back when initially published by the NYT, I bought the book some years later. I read one essay each night, sometimes for multiple nights in a row, sometimes not going back to the book for months at a time. For me, this was a productive approach to the book. The essays each only took a few minutes and during all this period I devoted most of my reading time to other books. This is a pattern I started with an absolutely fascinating book, A History of the World in 100 Objects (all of which are from the British Museum). and I'm likely to continue this pattern with other books with short chapters or essays.
While I read some of these back when initially published by the NYT, I bought the book some years later. I read one essay each night, sometimes for multiple nights in a row, sometimes not going back to the book for months at a time. For me, this was a productive approach to the book. The essays each only took a few minutes and during all this period I devoted most of my reading time to other books. This is a pattern I started with an absolutely fascinating book, A History of the World in 100 Objects (all of which are from the British Museum). and I'm likely to continue this pattern with other books with short chapters or essays.
September 19, 2022
Very interesting collection of excerpts from the civil war period. It did not just focus on the war, but about the lives of those around and in the war. I feel like I learned a lot of things that would have never been focused on in a history course.
November 10, 2020
Nice "snack sized" snippets on unique aspects of the Civil War.
December 7, 2016
A series of short articles, each about 2 to 4 pages, published on-line during the sesquicentennial years. Sidebars, which presume you already have a grasp of the central history. I think even the most dedicated Civil War buff will find something new and interesting.
April 15, 2017
Really enjoyable book, consisting of short articles originally published in the New York Times over a period of time. The writing is up to their standard.
The articles are varied in content, and viewpoint, and you gain a much keener understanding of how it was during that period of time in the United States. It wasn't as simple as they taught us in high school! In fact, it was really quite convoluted and complicated. It didn't happen overnight, but took years to build up to the point of the secession.
Highly recommend this book to learn more about our country, and the Civil War in particular.
The articles are varied in content, and viewpoint, and you gain a much keener understanding of how it was during that period of time in the United States. It wasn't as simple as they taught us in high school! In fact, it was really quite convoluted and complicated. It didn't happen overnight, but took years to build up to the point of the secession.
Highly recommend this book to learn more about our country, and the Civil War in particular.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews