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The Civil War
- A Concise History
- Narrated by: Lance Guest
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's summary
One hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captures the American imagination, and its reverberations can still be felt throughout America's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The Civil War: A Concise History offers a masterful and eminently listenable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects.
Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. The book then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a limited conflict to restore the Union to an all-out war that would fundamentally transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation, remaking its political, cultural, and social institutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than America's Iliad.
In the final chapter, Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that continued to divide president and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners for years to come.
In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." From the vantage of the war's sesquicentennial, this concise history of the entire Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects are still felt today.
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At the crux of America's history stand two astounding events: the immediate and complete destruction of the most powerful system of slavery in the modern world, followed by a political reconstruction in which new constitutions established the fundamental rights of citizens for formerly enslaved people. Few people living in 1860 would have dared imagine either event, and yet, in retrospect, both seem to have been inevitable. In a beautifully crafted narrative, Edward L. Ayers restores the drama of the unexpected to the history of the Civil War.
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great history
- By Linda Sisco on 11-30-17
By: Edward L. Ayers
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Freedom National
- The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
- By: James Oakes
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The consensus view of the Civil War - that it was first and foremost a war to restore the Union, and an antislavery war only later when it became necessary for Union victory - dies here. James Oakes’s groundbreaking history shows how deftly Lincoln and congressional Republicans pursued antislavery throughout the war, pragmatic in policy but steadfast on principle. In the disloyal South the federal government quickly began freeing slaves, immediately and without slaveholder compensation, as they fled to Union lines.
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An Excellent Book on an Important and little understood subject
- By Dee M on 12-22-22
By: James Oakes
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America's Great Debate
- Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union
- By: Fergus M. Bordewich
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mexican War introduced vast new territories into the United States, among them California and the present-day Southwest. When gold was discovered in California in the great Gold Rush of 1849, the population swelled, and settlers petitioned for admission to the Union. But the U.S. Senate was precariously balanced with 15 free states and 15 slave states. Up to this point, states had been admitted in pairs, one free and one slave, to preserve that tenuous balance in the Senate.
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Excellent. Very detailed. Entertaining.
- By Douglas on 03-03-18
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Armies of Deliverance
- A New History of the Civil War
- By: Elizabeth R. Varon
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Loyal Americans marched off to war in 1861 not to conquer the South but to liberate it. So argues Elizabeth R. Varon in Armies of Deliverance, a sweeping narrative of the Civil War and a bold new interpretation of Union and Confederate war aims. Northerners imagined the war as a crusade to deliver the Southern masses from slaveholder domination and to bring democracy, prosperity, and education to the region. As the war escalated, Lincoln and his allies built the case that emancipation would secure military victory and benefit the North and South alike.
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First rate history
- By John S. Pachter on 06-10-24
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The Man Who Saved the Union
- Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 27 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Ulysses Grant rose from obscurity to discover he had a genius for battle, and he propelled the Union to victory in the Civil War. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the disastrous brief presidency of Andrew Johnson, America turned to Grant again to unite the country, this time as president. In Brands' sweeping, majestic full biography, Grant emerges as a heroic figure who was fearlessly on the side of right.
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Underrated hero
- By Tad Davis on 12-22-12
By: H. W. Brands
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The Myth of the Lost Cause
- Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won
- By: Edward H. Bonekemper III
- Narrated by: C.J. McAllister
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The former Confederate states have continually mythologized the South's defeat to the North, depicting the Civil War as unnecessary, or as a fight over states' Constitutional rights, or as a David v. Goliath struggle in which the North waged "total war" over an underdog South. In The Myth of the Lost Cause, historian Edward Bonekemper deconstructs this multi-faceted myth, revealing the truth about the war that nearly tore the nation apart 150 years ago.
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The Civil War was about Slavery. Period.
- By Reg on 02-07-17
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President Lincoln
- The Duty of a Statesman
- By: William Lee Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The American president has come to be the most powerful figure in the world. And back in the 19th century, a great man held that office. William Lee Miller's new book closely examines that great man in that hugely important office: Abraham Lincoln as president.
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An analysis of Lincoln's life, not a history
- By D. Rairigh on 05-24-09
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The Civil War: A Captivating Guide to the American Civil War and Its Impact on the History of the United States
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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No other war in the history of the US has sparked as much debate and conflict as the American Civil War. For more than 150 years, the story of the Civil War has been a source of contention, confusion, and even contempt in American life. Explore the deadliest war in American history!
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Quick good listening.
- By Janet Crawford on 10-17-18
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Washington and Hamilton
- The Alliance That Forged America
- By: Stephen F. Knott, Tony Williams
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the wake of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers faced a daunting task: overcome their competing visions to build a new nation, the likes of which the world had never seen. Washington and Hamilton chronicles the unlikely collaboration between two conflicting characters working together to protect their hard-won freedoms. Yet while Washington and Hamilton's different personalities often led to fruitful collaboration, their conflicting ideals also tested the boundaries of their relationship - and threatened the future of the new republic.
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Biography
- By Emily on 06-14-18
By: Stephen F. Knott, and others
What listeners say about The Civil War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert L. Yorke Jr.
- 07-18-23
Just what I wanted
Best part was the several decades leading up to the civil war. And the period after the war ended.
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