1001 Things Everyone Should Know about the Civil War

I must admit that the seemingly conflicting reviews here encouraged me to read this book, and I discovered that the negative reviewers did not take the larger view that the author obviously did, and look at the war as a cost to both sides, and a tragedy and loss to both the North and South. (thus a battle is both a victory and a defeat...)Their comments seem mean-spirited and obviously not thought out; nor was the preface read by some of them! This author has done a difficult task- reducing the war into 1001 things- extremely well in my view; the biographical sketches were insightful and poetic and all of the battle descriptions were vivid and exciting. Excerpts from diaries and military papers and miniscule details show the depth of knowledge and the scope of research of this author. I would recommend it.

Thanks to 2/14 "Sad" Review for piquing my curiosity, I got a copy and found Vandiver's 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the Civil War to be a lot of fun, breaches notwithstanding! In fact, I checked the entry "Sad" complains about with the source, Francis Miller's outstanding 10-volumn series, Photographic History of the Civil War. Miller too has General Sherman leaning on the "breach" of the gun! Misspelling aside, the book is a good one, and I am grateful to a scholar of Vandiver's stature for taking the time to do a popular work of this nature. 1001 Thanks!

Books like this one---essentially "facts" books designed as quick and entertaining reference---are often misunderstood, as evidenced by several prior reviews in this forum! From reading this book, it is obvious that Frank Vandiver has encyclopedic knowledge of the War Between the States, and that there is something for everyone to learn by just reading it, including the Preface.

I wrote this book and like it fairly well! I am irked by the fact that most people do NOT read prefaces! Many of the criticisms I see in the reviews of 1001 Things are explained in the preface--a quick read would have avoided much confusion. Please, when you read books, do the author a courtesy and read the preface. Much is often revealed there. Thanks.

This book tackles a very difficult subject and presents it in a straight forward and easily readable context. There is a lot of information here and the abundance of pictures is appreciated (although, why is there no picture of Jefferson Davis?) The book does not attempt to be the final word on the Civil War. Its chronological approach is effective and the descriptions of the Generals is particularly insightful. I recommend the book to anyone interested in becoming at least competent at cocktail parties to discuss the Civil War. The only real complaint I have is that the book is noticeably pro Confederacy. The book is written by a Texan, so this should be no surprise. The problem is that when a bias presents itself, it makes the reader wonder about the accuracy of the information presented. Granted, I'm a northerner, but the Civil War has been over for over 135 years--the time for rationalizations is long past. By the end of the book, however, I started to just view the information as naturally skewered towards the Confederacy and I got back to enjoying the book. A good read and a nice start for someone, like myself, who wants to know the basics about the Civil War.