Quote:
Originally Posted by Olivieroma
So many books have been written on the Civil War that it's deficult to focus on the indespensables.
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I would have a few dozen works on the war which I would recommend on the basis of having read and enjoyed them a great deal. You narrowed your request to "indispensable" and that list could be long or short depending upon your purpose.
You have read McPherson and that is where I would have told you to start. From there I would move to the Foote trilogy. After digesting those, you should have a pretty good idea of what your specific interests are, and can then look for works devoted to those themes.
If your plan is to take a more scholastic approach, for the period leading up to the war, the indispensables are:
The Impending Crisis..David Potter (you mentioned this)
The Partisan Imperative...Joel Silby (an examination of how our functioning two party system broke down under the pressure of sectional conflcit.)
and just published a few months ago, a wonderful book,
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart (an examination of the first year of the war from a cultural perspective.)
For particular battles or biographies, there is a surfeit of such books, here you should just go to the library and pick out the ones that strike your fancy. The ones of particular merit include:
The Landscape Turned Red..Stephen W. Sears' book about Antietam
Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville...Wiley Sword's account of the Confederacy's bloody last battles in the west.
Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor...Noah Andre Trudeau's presentation of the most intense eastern theater combat of the war.
The Guns of Cedar Creek..Thomas A. Lewis...very well written telling of Sheridan vs Early in the last battle of the Valley.
If your desire is for original sources, first hand accounts, then of course Battles and Leaders has no peer. That is an immense collection, and if you want original sources packaged in a more managable and enjoyable manner, try any and all of the books by Richard Wheeler:
A Rising Thunder: From Lincoln's Election to the Battles of Bull Run: An Eyewitness History
Sword Over Richmond: An Eyewitness History Of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign
Lee's Terrible Swift Sword: From Antietam to Chancellorsville: An Eyewitness History
Witness to Gettysburg: Inside the Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War
Sherman's March: An Eyewitness History of the Cruel Campaign That Helped End a Crueler War
Witness to Appomattox
Wheeler came up with a great idea. He presents the narrative history of the events each book concerns, but then tells the inner story by providing exerts from the eyewitness accounts written by the participants. The entire series is extremely worthwhile.
Finally, if your area of interest is in how the war was fought in the fields, there is
Combat: The Civil War edited by Don Congdon. This book walks you through the war battle by battle, with each conflcit covered by a long description from one or two participants.
When you have finished reading all of the above, get back to me and I'll have some more for you.
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