The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Confederacy

by J. Stephen Lang

Provides a history of the Confederate States of America, covering political, military, legal, and social topics.

Genres: History, Military History, Civil War, American Civil War

360 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2002

About the author

J. Stephen Lang is the author of the bestseller The Complete Book of Bible Trivia and sixteen other books, including 1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know About the Bible and 1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know About the Holy Spirit.

Reviews

[Rich · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a primer on the history of the Confederacy, there is quite a bit of useful information in this book... but the relentless pro-Confederate bias wears thin after a while. I also found there was some important information conveniently left out of the coverage of some subjects. Two examples- 1) With regard to the Gettysburg campaign, the author states: "Despite all the blood shed at Gettysburg, there was something civilized about the whole affair. Lee had been mostly successful in preventing his Rebs from stealing from civilians." The author fails to note the blacks in Pennsylvania shamefully kidnapped by the Army of Northern Virginia during the campaign. 2) On page 300 the author says that the exchange of prisoners broke down when "Grant brought it to a halt in April 1864" because he "thought he could shorten the war by keeping Reb soldiers in prison..." Which is true- Grant saw this as another way to exploit the North's manpower advantage- but another reason Grant broke off the exchanges is because the Confederacy refused to treat black Union soldiers as POWs.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative! Being a Yankee, there was alot of things that I had no idea of some of the things that pushed the southereners into the war. In my opinion and experience, it almost seems as though a completely different Civil War history is taught in the north.