50 Things You Should Know About the Civil War - Softcover

Wright, John D.

4

6 ratings by Goodreads

9781682971574: 50 Things You Should Know About the Civil War

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682971570 ISBN 13: 9781682971574

Publisher: words & pictures, 2017

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In 1860, the North and the South of the United States were very different societies. The North had abolished slavery in the early 19th century, while the South still relied on slaves to work on its farms and plantations. The first chapter will set the scene, showing how simmering tensions over the right to keep slaves in the new states that were being founded as the country pushed westwards eventually erupted into war following the election of the pro-abolition president, Abraham Lincoln.

The middle chapters provide an overview of the major battles that followed the South's decision to secede from the Union. Momentum swung backwards and forwards in the early years before the North eventually gained the upper hand, forcing the South’s surrender in 1865.

The final chapter looks at the aftermath and consequences of the war, as the United States of America began the process of healing and reconstruction in the post-slavery era.

The book highlights all the most important figures of the period, as well as focusing on the military and political strategies of both sides and the influence of the wider world on the conflict. The text is lively and clearly presented with fact panels providing fascinating extra pieces of information and background stories.

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About the Author:

John D. Wright is the author of several works of non-fiction, including other titles on the American Civil War.

Susannah Ural holds a Ph.D. in history from Kansas State University. She specialises in nineteenth-century America, with an emphasis on the socio-military experiences of U.S. Civil War soldiers and their families. She is Co-Director of the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society and former co-director of the Center for the Study of the Gulf South. Dr. Ural teaches courses on the U.S. Civil War era and classes relating to the larger nineteenth-century, including “Mark Twain’s America,” as well as instructing history majors on research and writing methods. She is an active member of the Society of Civil War Historians, the Southern Historical Association, and the Society for Military History, and is on the editorial board of Civil War History, The Journal of Military History, the journal War and Society, and the magazine Civil War Times. Her masters and doctoral students write on a wide variety of socio-military topics relating to the Civil War era.
In the fall of 2013, Osprey Press released Dr. Ural’s latest book, Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It, which Civil War scholar Gary Gallagher has praised in his foreword for its “Compelling voices that reward anyone seeking nuance rather than a simple narrative. Hades tells the story of America’s defining conflict through the experiences of largely unknown as well as prominent soldiers, politicians, and families at war. In 2006, Dr. Ural published The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 (NYU Press). NYU Press also published her edited essay collection, Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in America's Bloodiest Conflict, in 2010. She is the author of "'Remember Your Country and Keep Up Its Credit': Irish-Americans and the Union War Effort, 1861-1865" published in The Journal of Military History in 2005, and other articles and short essays relating to Irish-American military service and the Texas Brigade in popular magazines like America's Civil War (March 2009) and Civil War Times Illustrated (September 2007). She writes two regular series for Civil War Times Illustrated titled “War in Their Words,” which highlights essential primary source collections, and "Ural on URLs,” which reviews websites focused on the U.S. Civil War Era.
Dr. Ural's current project is Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of an Elite Confederate Unit, which will be published by LSU Press in 2017. She is also compiling the best of their letters, diaries, and poetry into a collection co-edited with Rick Eiserman tentatively titled Voices of the Texas Brigade, as well as editing a Texas Brigade family's correspondence for a project titled, This Murderous Storm: A Confederate Family at War.

Review:

"This series entry delivers exactly what the title says. There is nothing surprisingly new in Wright's gathering of United States Civil War facts, and most of the material centers on slavery and battles. The book is mostly laid out in page-long spreads, built up of colored boxes of highlights, an eye-catching collection of artwork, and a timeline running along the foot of the page. Various characters receive modest attention: generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, John Brown, Andrew Johnson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and, of course, Abraham Lincoln throughout. Signal battles, technology, and political maneuvering are also touched upon. Where Wright will capture readers is in the details: torpedo boats, code breakers, giant mortars ferried by railroad cars, "Sherman the Destroyer," the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the Freedmen's Bureau, and Native Americans brought to prominence...It's the details that grab readers' attention here instead of the big picture.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Concise, pertinent information on the Civil War, presented within a richly visual context.” — Carolyn Phelan, for Booklist

"This attractive volume features key facts about the Civil War and presents information in a visually engaging format. Brief introductory pages focus on the Founding Fathers’ vision for this country, but the bulk of the book centers on the years between 1861 and 1865 when the Civil War was raging. Bold headlines inform readers about each page’s content, and facts are boiled down to one paragraph per page. Colorful text boxes and sidebars also highlight key people and places from the time period. Readers learn about people like Nat Turner, Stephen Douglas, Stonewall Jackson, Clara Barton, and many more. A few concluding pages also discuss Reconstruction and its effects. Timelines, maps, photographs, and primary source documents also enhance each spread." - Anne Bozievich, Library Media Specialist, Friendship Elementary School, Glen Rock, Pennsylvania in a recommended review for School Library Connection, January/February 2018 Issue

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