American Civil War

By Winston S. Churchill

Book Overview

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR taken from Volume IV of Churchill's acclaimed A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH- SPEAKING PEOPLES, brings us up to the turn of the century. But Churchill's superb account of the American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517467798
• ISBN13: 9780517467794
• Release Date: November 1987
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
• Length: 145 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Gone Also With the Wind

Churchill's view of our War Between the States is in keepingwith the most prominent mythologized history of that conflict, onefeature of which is a perception of "near-divinity" inGen. Robert E. Lee. That perception was begun during the war andboosted to completion shortly afterwards by Gen. Jubal Early and hispowerful influence over the Southern Historical Society Papers (amajor source for most Civil War history). An excellent ifcontroversial review of these issues is found in "The Myth of theLost Cause" ed. by Gallagher and Nolan. One can readilyunderstand the appeal of such a myth to Winston Churchill as he triedto come to terms with his own witnessing of the Fall of the BritishEmpire having just been totally dependent on American aid to survivethe war with Germany. Joseph Campbell understood "myth"to be a psychosocial system (expressed through the arts) that allows aculture to get into accord with an awful fact that cannot be dealtwith as raw, factual history. It would seem that witnessing one'ssociety crumbling into oblivion calls for such a myth. Churchill'swork is fascinating. His use of the English language is mostsuperb. This work will provide the reader (or listener) with somepowerful insights into the American Civl War, World War II, and theuse of myth to connect us with the awful human experience of havingthe very structure of one's World vanish forever.