Battle Cry of Freedom: Attempting to Understand America's Civil War

Here we are, at book three of the summer reading challenge!

Battle Cry of Freedom is part of the Oxford History of the United States series. The book was originally published in 1988, and earned McPherson a Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times reviewer called it "...the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across." It continues to be used in classrooms today to teach the history of the Civil War across high school and college curriculums.

The book covers the background and history of the American Civil War, starting in the 1830s and tracing the evolution of the slavery issue and ending in the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination and disarray before the Reconstruction era began. McPherson does an excellent job of portraying both sides equally, without any particular bias - a difficult feat, especially in one of the most divisive subjects in American history. Much of his efforts go towards understanding what each side was fighting for. Both sides fought for freedom - but McPherson explains that they understood the idea of freedom very differently. This differentiation of each side, while showing their similarities, is what makes McPherson's book so succinct and understandable. He helps to make the war more understandable to the modern reader, separated as we are by a little over 150 years from the actual events.

I've been wanting to read this book since I finished my Civil War class in undergrad. Somehow, I've become even more interested in the war, especially in light of current events. I started this year out reading Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz's study of Southern memory and the Civil War and the books I've chosen to read this summer include three more on the subject (Battle Cry included). Something about this war continues to draw me in and pique my curiosity. What I most enjoyed about McPherson's book was his readability. I've read other pieces of his writing before (his essay collection This Mighty Scourge; For Cause and Comrades, a book on the soldiers fighting in the war; and Tried by War, his biography of Abraham Lincoln as commander-in-chief) and greatly enjoyed their flow. What I appreciated most from this particular work was the snarky sense of humor that popped in occasionally. Peppered throughout the text, it made reading the book even more enjoyable. My only disappointment was that McPherson completely skipped Lincoln's assassination, instead mentioning Booth's comment about killing the President and then jumping directly into the aftermath.

I really enjoyed reading this. I think it's definitely the best summary of the war I've read - but it is rather long, and if I ever wind up using it as a reading for students, I might assign specific portions of the book rather than the entire thing. I do think it's an important piece of Civil War historiography, and I'm glad I took the time to pick it up and read it.

Overall rating: 9.5/10 stars