April 1865: The Month That Saved America

Arrived on time as described

I watched Jay Winik give a talk about April 1865 on C-SPAN's Bookspan. WOW! We just HAD to get this book after listening to this incredibly articulate author. I didn't think anyone could really put a new (non-revisionist) set of ideas about the Civil War, but Winik really focuses on the men and the time of April 1865 and how the events of that month were such a pivotal time in our history.The section on the Booth plot revealed facts I'd forgotton or didn't know (the attack also included Seward, Secretary of State and was as devastating in its time as the attack on the WTC.) The insights about Lee are fascinating. Lincoln held Lee in great esteem and Lee's gentleman-soldier qualities probably saved the United States from a protracted struggle and ultimate destruction. If Lee and his men had gone guerilla, as had been suggested to him, we might never have survived the Civil War and would have been easy pickings for European powers. Lee literally determined the course of history during that fateful month. If you are a history fan, you will of course be interested in reading this fresh view on a well-trodden subject. If you aren't normally a history fan, but have recently gotten more interested in American history and patriotic subjects due to the recent attacks on the US, you will find valuable insight into our national character and background in this book. Highly recommended.

As a West Point graduate, I have always been very interested in the Civil War. This book is more than marvelous, because it breaks new ground, with vivid insights of Lee, Grant, Lincoln, Johnston, and Sherman-- among others-- and the strains and agony these leaders endured in April 1865. The passages on guerrilla warfare are chilling - but accurate history. I've read countless Civil War books and visited many battlefield sites. But I've never seen anyone put the war into context the way Winik does-- and he gives you a background to appreciate it in terms of American and even some world history. This is no dull history lesson. The writing is incredible, the narration engrossing-- readers can almost smell the smoke and hear the gunfire. Winik's story more than matches the narrative. If more historians wrote, researched and analyzed like Winik, Americans would be clamoring to learn more about their past. This is a terrific book; you won't find a better history all year. Just like Ike and Douglas MacArthur -- Five Stars-- and totally deserved!

My great grandfather, a poor farmer in Bedford County,Va., was NOT a slave owner. At age 30, he joined the Confederate army, not returning to his wife and 5 children for 4 long years. After reading the amazing Wall Street Journal review that called April 1865 "magnificant" I had to get a copy. April 1865 is so moving and so splendid that the review can not possibly do it justice. I read April 1865 with tears streaming. Author Jay Winik has an amazing grasp of American history and he makes it come alive. This is a healing book, one that fully explains the reasons for the Civil War. April 1865 made me appreciate for the first time how the decisions of people like Lincoln, Lee and Grant saved America from the terrible fate that has befallen other countries afflicted by Civil War - countries like Bosnia and Northern Ireland. Most importantly, the writing is incredible. You will stay up at night to finish it and will end it feeling proud and humble to be American - with all the blessings this country offers.

The phrase "living history" is often falsly ascribed to books that take the reader back to a period and the events being written about. In the case of Jay Winik's "April 1865", this phrase is an understatement. Winik has managed to achieve what so few writers ever come close too. He weaves the complex web of events that and individuals who helped shape the UNITED STATES that we know and love into a narrative which is truely magnificent. The political, military and above all moral dilemmas facing Lee, Grant, Lincoln et al in the closing days of the Civil War come to life at the end of Winik's fluid penmanship. One can only imagine the truely appaling consequences for all involved in that bloody conflict as the remnants of Lee's once great army struggled to escape the jaws of Grant's seemingly endless onslaught. Again Winik takes the reader into the thoughts of the adversaries, both those who would ultimately decide the fate of both armies, and the men who struggled to understand why they were there and what they were fighting and dying for. Winik more so than any Civil War writer todate encapsulates the motivations of various individuals - Union and Confederate - and the way in which parties on both sides could have chosen a far more horrific and uncertain outcome. From the prelude to the last page, Winik's unique style of conveying such a complex and oft misunderstood period in our history, will keep the reader enthralled and longing for more. This work truely deserves to become one of the standard texts on any Civil War reading list and should become a classic. A truely magnificent achievement!

When I saw an ad for April 1865, with lavish praise from Doris Kearns Goodwin, James McPherson, and Paul Johnson, I thought this must be a pretty good book. Well, it's even better. Winik's "April 1865" is one of the best histories I've read in years. It reads like a grand story -- brilliantly constructed, filled with rich insights, and paced like a good page-turner. The book reminds me of one of those great histories that come along every once in a rare while -- in a class with Tuchman's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Guns of August" or McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Winik also has a knack for asking the questions that other historians never seemed to have thought of. He points out (rightly) that far too many civil wars end badly or are perpetually self-renewing -- think of the centuries old "Irish Question," or the ongoing bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia, or the horrors of Rwanda. Positioning America within the larger sweep of history, Winik then shows that America's Civil War could easily have ended just as badly -- but didn't. Why? Winik tells that fascinating story. I highly recommend this book.