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A People's History #5
Trial by Fire
Covers all main events and personalities of the Civil War and Reconstruction and describes the wartime lives of Americans, north and south
1056 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1982
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About the author
Page Smith
84 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Charles Page Smith, who was known by his middle name, was a U.S. historian, professor, author, and newspaper columnist.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Smith graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1940. He then worked at Camp William James, a center for youth leadership training opened in 1940 by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, a Dartmouth College professor, as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Smith was awarded a Purple Heart for his service as a company commander of the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army during World War II. (wikipedia)
Charles Page Smith, who was known by his middle name, was a U.S. historian, professor, author, and newspaper columnist.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Smith graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1940. He then worked at Camp William James, a center for youth leadership training opened in 1940 by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, a Dartmouth College professor, as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Smith was awarded a Purple Heart for his service as a company commander of the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army during World War II. (wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 28, 2025
There are three eras during which the future of the nation was at stake, in the 18th century it was the Revolution and in the 19th century it was Civil War. Trial by Fire: A People’s History of the Civil War and Reconstruction is the fifth volume of Page Smith’s A People’s History series from Fort Sumter to the election of 1876 as the nation is racked by four years of war to successfully save the Union and 11 years of Reconstruction that failed to bring the freedman truly within body politic short-term but creating a promissory note for the future.
This volume is by the nature of its emphasis in a particularly 15-year period of the nation’s history different from Smith’s previous volumes in terms of scope in military, political, and cultural elements. Over the nearly 1000 pages of text, Smith not only detailed the events of the war along the twists and turns of Reconstruction to correct the record of the period that the “Lost Cause” myth perpetuated about the period over the course of over half a century. Among the most important parts of the book was Smith’s concluding analysis of both the war and Reconstruction: when writing about the former Smith concluded that the South probably should have won given various factors at the beginning of the war but poor strategic decisions by the South allowed the North’s numbers and industrial capacity overwhelm it while the later was always doomed to fail due to Southern intransigence and the fact Northern opinion of blacks was negative Reconstruction needed to be attempted because the alternative would have been emphatically worse. While the overall product was very well written and very informative, Smith made a lot of head scratching mistakes that stood out because they were contradicted by the actual facts just paragraphs later which appears to be sloppy editing by someone because it was blatant that something happened between first draft manuscript and ready for publication proof that allowed these errors to creep in. The fact that I downgraded the rating an entire star compared to the previous volumes is an indication of how much it got my attention.
Trial by Fire is a culmination of events that Page Smith chronicled in his history of the United States as the two conflicting views of what the country clashed and its aftermath that created a more “national” though still incomplete vision of the country that would lead into it’s next chapter.
This volume is by the nature of its emphasis in a particularly 15-year period of the nation’s history different from Smith’s previous volumes in terms of scope in military, political, and cultural elements. Over the nearly 1000 pages of text, Smith not only detailed the events of the war along the twists and turns of Reconstruction to correct the record of the period that the “Lost Cause” myth perpetuated about the period over the course of over half a century. Among the most important parts of the book was Smith’s concluding analysis of both the war and Reconstruction: when writing about the former Smith concluded that the South probably should have won given various factors at the beginning of the war but poor strategic decisions by the South allowed the North’s numbers and industrial capacity overwhelm it while the later was always doomed to fail due to Southern intransigence and the fact Northern opinion of blacks was negative Reconstruction needed to be attempted because the alternative would have been emphatically worse. While the overall product was very well written and very informative, Smith made a lot of head scratching mistakes that stood out because they were contradicted by the actual facts just paragraphs later which appears to be sloppy editing by someone because it was blatant that something happened between first draft manuscript and ready for publication proof that allowed these errors to creep in. The fact that I downgraded the rating an entire star compared to the previous volumes is an indication of how much it got my attention.
Trial by Fire is a culmination of events that Page Smith chronicled in his history of the United States as the two conflicting views of what the country clashed and its aftermath that created a more “national” though still incomplete vision of the country that would lead into it’s next chapter.
February 17, 2013
Page Smith's "Trial By Fire: A People's History of the Civil War & Reconstruction" is the 5th volume in an 8 volume history of the United States from its inception to the New Deal. In other words, you have 1/8th of an 8000 page history in your hands. This book's focus is not so much on the war itself, nor all the various battles, but rather the historical context of that time and place. Smith states: "I feel obliged to make clear to the reader that this is not primarily a military history." If one wants to cover the military aspects, you cannot do better than peruse Shelby Foote's multivolume tome.
Virtually every history book that covers 1860 to 1876 glosses over Reconstruction. Admittedly, it is not a fun subject. But this is where this book really shines. Smith takes 1st person sources and brings them to life. I would do a disservice trying to summarize that subject, but other topics are equally well done. For example, in Chapter 24 'Hospitals & Prisons'... "Whitman wrote, 'the wounded lying on the ground, lucky if their blankets are spread on layers of pine or hemlock twigs, or small leaves. No cots; seldom even a mattress...The ground is frozen hard, and there is occasional snow.'" There are gems like that everywhere. Smith has culled information from some of the best writers of the time.
But he is at his best when he is adding his own summaries to all the background. Here he is near the end in a chapter entitled "Reconstruction Reconsidered": "It took the convergence of half a dozen elements - the desire of the Republicans to hold onto power; the fanatical and immovable determination of the South to reduce the freedmen to a condition of slavery in all but name; the intractable and finally infuriating policies of President Johnson; a widespread desire to punish the South in the face of Southern intractability; the political pressures created by the vast network of freedmen's associations; and, perhaps above all, the skill and tenaciousness of the leaders of the Radical Republicans in Congress - it literally took all these unpredictable elements to effect those modest improvements in the condition of the freed slaves that could be counted by the 'end' of Reconstruction." This is powerful stuff. I defy anyone to find a pithier statement on Reconstruction anywhere.
I'm looking forward to starting Volume 6: The Rise of Industrial America.
Virtually every history book that covers 1860 to 1876 glosses over Reconstruction. Admittedly, it is not a fun subject. But this is where this book really shines. Smith takes 1st person sources and brings them to life. I would do a disservice trying to summarize that subject, but other topics are equally well done. For example, in Chapter 24 'Hospitals & Prisons'... "Whitman wrote, 'the wounded lying on the ground, lucky if their blankets are spread on layers of pine or hemlock twigs, or small leaves. No cots; seldom even a mattress...The ground is frozen hard, and there is occasional snow.'" There are gems like that everywhere. Smith has culled information from some of the best writers of the time.
But he is at his best when he is adding his own summaries to all the background. Here he is near the end in a chapter entitled "Reconstruction Reconsidered": "It took the convergence of half a dozen elements - the desire of the Republicans to hold onto power; the fanatical and immovable determination of the South to reduce the freedmen to a condition of slavery in all but name; the intractable and finally infuriating policies of President Johnson; a widespread desire to punish the South in the face of Southern intractability; the political pressures created by the vast network of freedmen's associations; and, perhaps above all, the skill and tenaciousness of the leaders of the Radical Republicans in Congress - it literally took all these unpredictable elements to effect those modest improvements in the condition of the freed slaves that could be counted by the 'end' of Reconstruction." This is powerful stuff. I defy anyone to find a pithier statement on Reconstruction anywhere.
I'm looking forward to starting Volume 6: The Rise of Industrial America.
February 26, 2023
“Through such measures as high protective tariffs the North exploited the South economically and eventually pushed it into seceding to protect its legitimate economic interest. Needless to say, that is not the perspective of this work which is based UNQUALIFIEDLY on the ASSUMPTION that the institution slavery and, more specifically, the determination of the North to limit it and the South to extend it were the EXACT and SPECIFIC cause of the war.”
I gave this classified as non fiction and history book and one star because, as the author clearly states, it is an unqualified account based on assumption. But this is our education system now entrenched for more than 70+ years into the minds of our youth. It’s a heartless tactic that opposes the very idea of intellect, borrowed from the pages of the Hitler BDM youth program. This book is a 1,000 page volume 5 of a series on American History.
I gave this classified as non fiction and history book and one star because, as the author clearly states, it is an unqualified account based on assumption. But this is our education system now entrenched for more than 70+ years into the minds of our youth. It’s a heartless tactic that opposes the very idea of intellect, borrowed from the pages of the Hitler BDM youth program. This book is a 1,000 page volume 5 of a series on American History.
June 1, 2020
The author's historical coverage of the American Civil War was simple, clear, and well organized as opposed to the complicated, exhaustive, and rambling look at Reconstruction. It is important to try to understand the Reconstruction period (1865-76) as most Civil War historians stop with the "triumphal march" of the Union soldiers in Washington, DC leaving the complicated administrations of Andrew Johnson and U.S. Grant alone. Page Smith does not ignore the struggles of the nation post Civil War.
December 29, 2020
Written in the 1970s, the writing can at times seem a bit old fashioned, even racist. The author does not spend a lot of time rehashing all the battles of the Civil War (thank goodness) but focuses on a few key battles. Most of the book is devoted to the Civil War, and only a few chapters on reconstruction. I was hoping for more information about the reconstruction period. The author includes lots of quotes from letters and journals, but provides no notes section, so you can't tell what his other sources are.
I was struck by the similarity between that period in history and our own. Then as now, both sides accused the other of "tyranny." Then as now, both sides felt that the entire future of the country, and democracy itself, was in jeopardy if the other side won. At times I found this comforting, thinking that if we got through it before and survived as a nation we would again. At other times I found it dispiriting that we are still in the same spiral of hatred.
Most surprisingly, I learned Lincoln's original idea for Thanksgiving was a day of "humble penitence for our national perverseness."
pg 511
"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
Thomas Jefferson
pg 617
"If you allow the dominant group in a society to establish the standards for approved and desirable behavior, you can be sure that the standards will be those at which the dominant groups excel."
pg 694
"The enemies of our country and government are now trying to persuade the community to believe that a war of race would result from giving the black man the same measure of justice and rights which the white men claim for themselves. This will be found to be a groundless fear. Our national danger will always result from unequal and partial laws."
Peter Cooper
pg 700
"In John Stewart Mill's opinion at least two generations 'must elapse before the habits and feelings engendered by slavery give place to new ones.'"
pg 747
"I know the time will come when every man and woman in the country will have the right to vote. I acknowledge the superiority of women. There are large numbers of the sex who have an intelligence more than equal to our own. Is it right or just to deprive these intelligent beings of the privileges which we enjoy? The time will come when you will have to meet this question. It will continue to be agitated until it must ultimately triumph."
William Whipper
pg 789
"... what the impeachment controversy most clearly demonstrated was a weakness in the American political system itself, which made it virtually impossible to remove a discredited president from office without convicting him of 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' In a parliamentary system Johnson would have fallen to a vote of no confidence by the end of his first year in office."
pg 853
"The slaves had created their own culture... They entered the white world in countless ways. But the white world never penetrated the inner world of blacks..."
pg 921
regarding the 1876 election:
"The cry for a 'change' is immensely powerful."
Carl Schurz to Rutherford Hays
(Then as now!)
pg 975
"...Emancipation was not the result of a popular moral sentiment, but of a 'military necessity.' It was not the fruit of righteousness, and therefore it is not peace."
Lydia Maria Child
pg 978
The reason for the end of reconstruction was the same as the beginning - Southern intractability.
The Meridean Mercury of Mississippi: "The Negro, will be a slave again or cease to be. His sole refuge from extinction will be in slavery to the white man."
I was struck by the similarity between that period in history and our own. Then as now, both sides accused the other of "tyranny." Then as now, both sides felt that the entire future of the country, and democracy itself, was in jeopardy if the other side won. At times I found this comforting, thinking that if we got through it before and survived as a nation we would again. At other times I found it dispiriting that we are still in the same spiral of hatred.
Most surprisingly, I learned Lincoln's original idea for Thanksgiving was a day of "humble penitence for our national perverseness."
pg 511
"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
Thomas Jefferson
pg 617
"If you allow the dominant group in a society to establish the standards for approved and desirable behavior, you can be sure that the standards will be those at which the dominant groups excel."
pg 694
"The enemies of our country and government are now trying to persuade the community to believe that a war of race would result from giving the black man the same measure of justice and rights which the white men claim for themselves. This will be found to be a groundless fear. Our national danger will always result from unequal and partial laws."
Peter Cooper
pg 700
"In John Stewart Mill's opinion at least two generations 'must elapse before the habits and feelings engendered by slavery give place to new ones.'"
pg 747
"I know the time will come when every man and woman in the country will have the right to vote. I acknowledge the superiority of women. There are large numbers of the sex who have an intelligence more than equal to our own. Is it right or just to deprive these intelligent beings of the privileges which we enjoy? The time will come when you will have to meet this question. It will continue to be agitated until it must ultimately triumph."
William Whipper
pg 789
"... what the impeachment controversy most clearly demonstrated was a weakness in the American political system itself, which made it virtually impossible to remove a discredited president from office without convicting him of 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' In a parliamentary system Johnson would have fallen to a vote of no confidence by the end of his first year in office."
pg 853
"The slaves had created their own culture... They entered the white world in countless ways. But the white world never penetrated the inner world of blacks..."
pg 921
regarding the 1876 election:
"The cry for a 'change' is immensely powerful."
Carl Schurz to Rutherford Hays
(Then as now!)
pg 975
"...Emancipation was not the result of a popular moral sentiment, but of a 'military necessity.' It was not the fruit of righteousness, and therefore it is not peace."
Lydia Maria Child
pg 978
The reason for the end of reconstruction was the same as the beginning - Southern intractability.
The Meridean Mercury of Mississippi: "The Negro, will be a slave again or cease to be. His sole refuge from extinction will be in slavery to the white man."
September 4, 2013
I began reading Page Smith's magnificent multi-volume history of the United States a couple of years ago, and have just completed the period covered by this work. (I am progressing slowly both because I am always reading 6-8 books at the same time and because Mr. Smith's writing is so "full" of first-person history that I savor each page.)
From the very beginning of his history, Mr. Smith makes every effort to cover the true "face" of the American experience, warts and all. Because the reader gets to hear -- often for the first time -- from so many persons previously unknown, the experience of living in this vast land becomes clearer, immensely "fleshed out."
Too, it helps us better to see enduring traits, strengths, and weaknesses of the American experience. We today are not very different from our 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Century predecessors. And the same basic struggles -- for justice, equality, and wrestling with great concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the few -- are neither new nor resolved.
Mr. Smith is a masterful writer, and it often seemed to me that I was listening to him "channel" voices sitting around a campfire in the past to me in my much more comfortable present.
This book is a joy to read for its narrative experience, and a sobering venture into the bitter, violent world of the 1850s through the 1870s. Much of it will seem familiar, for both the legacies and the problems of that era remain with us today.
From the very beginning of his history, Mr. Smith makes every effort to cover the true "face" of the American experience, warts and all. Because the reader gets to hear -- often for the first time -- from so many persons previously unknown, the experience of living in this vast land becomes clearer, immensely "fleshed out."
Too, it helps us better to see enduring traits, strengths, and weaknesses of the American experience. We today are not very different from our 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Century predecessors. And the same basic struggles -- for justice, equality, and wrestling with great concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the few -- are neither new nor resolved.
Mr. Smith is a masterful writer, and it often seemed to me that I was listening to him "channel" voices sitting around a campfire in the past to me in my much more comfortable present.
This book is a joy to read for its narrative experience, and a sobering venture into the bitter, violent world of the 1850s through the 1870s. Much of it will seem familiar, for both the legacies and the problems of that era remain with us today.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews