This Mighty Scourge

The book's common thread wraps around the Civil War, and arises from a compilation of 16 essays with related perspectives. Since the audio doesn't explain this theme, avoidable confusion results. The characters include Harriet Tubman, James Brown, and Jesse James, as well as numerous generals and politicians. Narrator Barrett Whitener doesn't create unique voices for them, but rather inflects his speech slightly or adds a quick pause to indicate it's not the author talking. Because of the lack of historical organization, Whitener's taciturn narration establishes and maintains the primary focus for listeners' attention. With no maps, no pictures, and no background for the many battles, beginners to this period of U.S. history may falter in listening to this. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

December 18, 2006
Prolific and much-honored historian McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom
, etc.) weighs in on the Civil War in this compilation of 16 essays, most of which have appeared in print before—seven of them in The New York Review of Books
. Revised and edited for this collection, the essays read like chapters in a smooth narrative that addresses some of the biggest questions of the Civil War: why did it start? why did the South lose? what motivated the men who fought on both sides? how do we evaluate the top leaders—including Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses G. Grant? McPherson goes about answering these and other questions in his usual graceful style, underscored by a thorough grasp of myriad primary and secondary sources on virtually every aspect of the conflict. He forthrightly expresses his opinions while backing them up with well-reasoned arguments, whether challenging the "Lost Cause" argument about why the South lost, or supporting the proposition that it was slavery—and not states' rights—that was the main cause of the war. This strong addition to the massive Civil War canon will appeal to all readers.