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The American Civil War : a military history / John Keegan.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.Edition: 1st edDescription: xvi, 396 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports. ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 0307263436
  • 9780307263438
Subject(s):
Contents:
North and South divide -- Will there be a war? -- Improvised armies -- Running the war -- The military geography of the Civil War -- The life of the soldier -- Plans -- McClellan takes command -- The war in middle America -- Lee's war in the East, Grant's war in the West -- Chancellorsville and Gettysburg -- Vicksburg -- Cutting the Chattanooga-Atlanta link -- The overland campaign and the fall of Richmond -- Breaking into the South -- The battle off Cherbourg and the Civil War at sea -- Black soldiers -- The home fronts -- Walt Whitman and wounds -- Civil War generalship -- Civl War battle -- Could the South have survived? -- The end of the war.
Summary: Analyzes many puzzling aspects of the Civil War, from its mismatched sides to the absence of decisive outcomes for dozens of skirmishes, and offers insight into the war's psychology, ideology, and economics while discussing the pivotal roles of leadership and geography.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 973.73 K26 Available 33111005821307
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 973.73 K26 Available 33111006201293
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America's most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name. Now Keegan examines these and other puzzles with a peerless understanding of warfare, uncovering dimensions of the conflict that have eluded earlier historiography. While offering original and perceptive insights into psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics, Keegan reveals the war's hidden shape--a consequence of leadership, the evolution of strategic logic, and, above all, geography, the Rosetta Stone of his legendary decipherments of all great battles. The American topography, Keegan argues, presented a battle space of complexity and challenges virtually unmatched before or since. Out of a succession of mythic but chaotic engagements, he weaves an irresistible narrative illuminated with comparisons to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and other conflicts. The American Civil War is sure to be hailed as a definitive account of its eternally fascinating subject. From the Hardcover edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

North and South divide -- Will there be a war? -- Improvised armies -- Running the war -- The military geography of the Civil War -- The life of the soldier -- Plans -- McClellan takes command -- The war in middle America -- Lee's war in the East, Grant's war in the West -- Chancellorsville and Gettysburg -- Vicksburg -- Cutting the Chattanooga-Atlanta link -- The overland campaign and the fall of Richmond -- Breaking into the South -- The battle off Cherbourg and the Civil War at sea -- Black soldiers -- The home fronts -- Walt Whitman and wounds -- Civil War generalship -- Civl War battle -- Could the South have survived? -- The end of the war.

Analyzes many puzzling aspects of the Civil War, from its mismatched sides to the absence of decisive outcomes for dozens of skirmishes, and offers insight into the war's psychology, ideology, and economics while discussing the pivotal roles of leadership and geography.

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