Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War by David J. Eicher, James M. McPherson ISBN: 0-684-84944-5 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.28 (18 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Comprehensive
Comment: The Longest Night is a solid history of the Civil War. It lacks much excitment and description, however, so if your looking for a more entertaining read look to Foote or Catton. I enjoyed the completeness of the story, which tells about virtually every clash of arms that took place during the war, and the orders or battle before each battle would be good for reference purposes. But the book falls short in the narrative category, being a little too dry and choppy for me. If you want a straight history of the Civil War, this is for you, if you are looking for entertainment, look elsewhere.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Longest Read
Comment: David J. Eicher's "The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War" is more than a military history of the civil war, but unfortunately it is also less. The facts may all be there, the details meticulously researched, developed and reported for the reader, but from the very beginning he has a "my book is more accurate than their book" attitude about those who have come before him and this undoes the work. He seems to revel in being right, and repeatedly corrects the prior record with snide remarks and asides, which if left unsaid would have made this a much better book.
James McPherson who arguably wrote the best single volume on the Civil War, "Battle Cry of Freedom," says in the foreword that this work is an "essential starting point" on Civil War history. With the utmost respect I completely disagree and refer Mr. McPherson to his own work as more than worthy of that description. Eicher's book is for those who have read just about everything else on the subject and are looking for more battle detail, which the author does provide. This is not by any measure a linear narrative of the war; events aren't always smoothly tied together, and there is a lot of social and political history, which has been omitted, as it should be in a strict military history.
The maps are ample, clear and well detailed, though the author or the editors must have an orientation bias. All maps have north pointing to the top of the book; as a result there is never a need to turn the book to review a map. For battles/events with a north/south orientation this is fine, these maps cover the entire page. The maps which have an east/west orientation suffer however as they are reduced in size to about a third of the page to maintain their orientation with the top of the book. Lastly, the maps often make the armies difficult to differentiate, as the gray representing the south is often very dark.
What the author does in his introduction however is completely unforgivable. He critiques both Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote's excellent multi-volume works. He complains that both are biased in the reportage, Catton for the North, Foote for the South and goes so far as to apparently blame Catton for the lack of research materials which has surfaced since he wrote his two trilogies decades ago. He takes Foote to task for other biases, as well and each are wholly inappropriate and uncalled for. There is no place for such personal editorial material in a purportedly objective historical work.
In addition to this error of judgment, throughout the text he makes want one can only call catty references to what he refers to at one point "dusty histories of the Civil War..." (pg. 365). He feels compelled to correct the written record by stating that in previous written histories such and such was reported, but it really was not that way at all. Occasionally he offers no further proof as when he relates on page 473 that "the term for 'hooker' as slang for prostitute most certainly existed long before Joe [Hooker] came onto the scene." The statement "most certainly" is proof of nothing. Lastly, his attempts to set the record straight becomes extreme and laughable when in retelling the rainy battle of Tullahoma he relates "The soldier's legend that Tullahoma was derived from the Greek tulla, meaning 'mud' and homa, meaning 'more mud,' was untrue." Eicher seems to miss the point that the soldiers were making a joke.
Finally because much of events in the Civil War overlap, the author occasionally gets his sequencing wrong. Most notably he relates Lincoln's assassination before he resolves Sherman's final triumph over Johnson. So Lincoln dies in mid-April and then we go back in time to March to Sherman's final pursuit.
If you have a driving need to read a book on the Civil War and have read everything else at least once (including McPherson, Foote and Catton) then if you must, read this. But it will be The Longest Read.
Rating: 2
Summary: somwhat interesting
Comment: 'The Longest Night' was interesting, but if you want to read a great narrative on the Civil War, read Shelby Footes three volume set of the war. It's great.
 |
Title: The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat (Modern War Studies) by Earl J. Hess ISBN: 0700608370 Publisher: University Press of Kansas Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Retreat to Victory?: Confederate Strategy Reconsidered (American Crisis Series) by Robert G. Tanner ISBN: 084202882X Publisher: SR Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: LEE'S LIEUTENANTS: A STUDY IN COMMAND by Douglas Southall Freeman, James M. McPherson, Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 0684859793 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
 |
Title: Mountains Touched With Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863 by Wiley Sword ISBN: 031215593X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle by John M. Priest ISBN: 0195084667 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
