The Longest Night : A Military History of the Civil War

Rating:
Summary: *****THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.
Review: This is a groundbreaking work that brings to life the human story of the battles, the suffering and tactics and strategy, better than any other book I've read. The maps are wonderful and the number of excerpts from letters and reports make the book a fast read even though there's lots of detail. I recommend it HIGHLY, as it already has a special place on my Civil War shelf. Hats off to the author!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent history
Review: This is a long and detailed military history of the Civil War. The book is not designed for an overview and if that is what you want save your money. However, if you want to know about more than Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg & Gettysburg this is the book. It might be the only book that will tell you how Pea Ridge impacted Shiloh and place the battle of Perryville in the invasion of 1862.

Bias, no I didn't find a problem with the book. It is devoid of the "Lost Cause" Mythology so loved by many and balanced in presenting the people. This often leads to charges like that. Is it a big book? YES, you need pages to lightly cover an event as big as the American Civil War.

Rating:
Summary: The Longest Read
Review: What a monumental disappointment. This is the only book I've ever read on the Civil War that I struggled to get through. The battle narratives don't compare with the standard works. The author likes to provide lots of detail about things like brigade sizes and artillery types but then never incorporates the information by showing any significance of the information in the narrative.