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Title: Conceived in Liberty: Joshua Chamberlain, William Oates, and the American Civil War by Mark Perry ISBN: 0140247971 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36
Rating: 5
Summary: A Prime Example of What the Civil War Won for All of Us
Comment: The Civil War was, in some ways, our own clash of cultures that ended up with us having a stronger, and more philisophically harmonic country than we had then. After the war we no longer were "Those United States" but "These United States".
While it took longer (and still has not taken root) for some Southern areas to accept that they have changed because of the war, this book outlines in a fascinating fashion why the American Dream was won in 1865.
Joshua Chamberlain and William Oates are both opposing personalities. Chamberlain was a professor, Oates a laborer. Chamberlain was a respected fellow before the war. Oates was much less.. even going into hiding at one point from the law.
What they had in common was a belief that they had gone as far as they could in their lives before the war. Chamberlain was forever going to be a professor. Oates forever a laborer.
Both faced each other in Gettysburg. While Chamberlain was the hero of Little Top in that battle, Oates eventually had a longer and more productive politcal life than Chamberlain.
Neither of these men won their positions by birth, wealth, or by the inner workings of a political machine. They won their positions by hard work, and the admiration of their men in battle and the people they fought for.
While it may have been possible prior to the Civil War for these men to have done so (Abraham Lincoln is a prime example) the fact is that the Southern philosophy was beaten in 1865, and the Northern philosophy of hard work, and position by trust and admiration rather than birth, and wealth won out and both sides reaped benefits and still are from that day.
Rating: 4
Summary: No Hero Worship, Just Heroes....
Comment: One cannot gain an understanding of the American Civil War, (as well as the periods preceding it and following it), unless one eventually learns to see it through the eyes of the people who lived it. This book is presents the reader with just such an opportunity.
The author follows the lives of two men from two completely different societies, through their youth, their adolescence and young adulthood, through the War and to the time where their paths cross in the battle on Little Round Top in July 1863, through the remainder of the war and its aftermath, right into old age. Each is affected by the society which surrounds him, each man embodies the best and the worst of those societies and each is motivated to fight in their defense. There's no hero worship here; each man is presented as being quite human. Yet, each man remains quite likeable in his own way.
There's some surprises as well. Chamberlain was played by Jeff Daniels in the movie "Gettysburg". In that movie Chamberlain gives an impassioned speech to his troops about being "...an army out to set other men free..." The real Chamberlain wasn't a friend of slavery but he was no abolitionist either. Oates, for his part, (and much to my surpise), was one of the first officers to officially lobby the Confederate Congress for the enlistment of slaves early in 1863. (He was unsuccessful in his attempt).
If I haven't given the book 5 stars it's because the author's writing style is a bit on the ponderous side. Nonetheless, this is the kind of book that you'll need to have in your library if your interest in the period is a serious one. Go experience it for yourself!
Rating: 5
Summary: A Well-Researched Compelling "Must Read"
Comment: So many books have been written about the Civil War that Conceived In Liberty might seem to be more of the same. But the book clears new ground on Joshua Chamberlain, by noting that this "marble man" of the North had blemishes of his own -- as did his counterpart, Col. William Oates of Alabama (the other subject of this first-rate dual biography.
I have read a number of books on Joshua Chamberlain and have always thought that there was another side to the man: that he was not simply a great hero, but also a soldier who was thoughtful, and deeply disturbed by the conflict. Perry adds the balance that is so desperately needed to our knowledge of Joshua Chamberlain, then completes the portrait by counterposing his life with that of William Oates.
These two men not only met at Gettysburg, but they are symbols of the larger issues that consumed our nation in the nineteenth century. Filled with information and anecdotal accounts of the lives of both men (incidents that appear in no other work on either Chamberlain or Oates) Conceived In Liberty is not only well-researched it is a fantastic read. This book is long overdue.
Yes, Conceived In Liberty is controversial, but that is its value. Perry is a courageous writer and a first-rate historian.
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Title: Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine of the Gettysburg Campaign by Thomas A. Desjardin ISBN: 0195140826 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN : A Study in Command by Edwin Coddington ISBN: 0684845695 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Gettysburg: The First Day (Civil War America) by Harry W. Pfanz ISBN: 0807826243 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism by Sean Hannity ISBN: 0060514558 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 20 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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