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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One volume history of the American Civil War, soup to nuts.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the Catton. McPherson is much drier than Catton and is not really trying for a NARRATIVE history; he has narrative chapters interleaved with thematic chapters, which enables him to cover a LOT of ground, but he does come off, just very slightly, like a textbook. (It's part of the Oxford History of the United States, so it's possible that should be considered a feature rather than a bug.)
On the other hand, if you want a comprehensive one volume history of the Civil War, McPherson is definitely your guy. He talks about just about everything, and his bibliographic note at the end points to more in-depth books. (Granted, it's thirty-five years out of date.) And although dry, he explains things well.
Four and a half stars, round up to five.
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Date: 2023-10-09 08:32 pm (UTC)