20 Good Reasons to Study the Civil War - Softcover

Waugh, John C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1893114465 ISBN 13: 9781893114463

Publisher: State House Press, 2004

Synopsis

The Civil War was a unique watershed, not only in American history but world history. Since the last gun was fired before Appomattox, it has fascinated and mesmerized us, as vivid in our imaginations as it was real in the lives of those who fought it.

There are many compelling reasons to study that epochal event in our past. Not only is it absolutely unique in history, not only a watershed that defined us as a nation, but it was a war of important firsts, a war to save the democratic form of government and the freedoms that we now enjoy. It ended slavery in our country and pioneered new ways of waging war on land and on the water.

It catapulted us into a new industrial and technological world and destroyed and made fortunes. Its politics were fascinating and crucial. It gave birth to a new journalism and an impressive body of literature and tested our faith as nothing ever has.

This book, written by a noted Civil War historian, expands on twenty important reasons why the Civil War should continue to be a central study for us all.

About this title

About the Author

JOHN C. WAUGH is a journalist turned historical reporter. After an eighteen-year career as a correspondent and bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor, reporting the twentieth century, he began instead reporting the nineteenth, specializing in his lifelong fascination, the Civil War. He has since written eight books about that pivotal passage in American history, among them the award-winning The Class of 1846, Reelecting Lincoln, Surviving the Confederacy, On the Brink of Civil War, and two titles from McWhiney Foundation Press, Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians and Last Stand at Mobile. He has also served on the senior staffs of two national politicians, former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. He lives in Pantego, Texas and can be reached at waugh@sbcglobal.net for interview.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reason One: It Was Unique

If events in history could be called Wonders of the Past- as seven magnificent man-made spectaculars of antiquity were called Wonders of the World- the American Civil War would doubtless be one of them.

The Civil War was to history the equivalent of a wonder of the world, a towering passage in the human experience that would rival such man-made wonders as the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, the Colossus of Rhodes, or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Like them, the Civil War excites awe. It was not beautiful as those great wonders were. It was bloody, violent, and heartbreaking,a distaste in its toll of human lives, in the anguish and sorrow it left in its track, in its political, social, and emotional upheaval.

Edition details

• Publisher: State House Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1893114465
• ISBN 13: 9781893114463
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96