The 160 pages or so of this tidy little book are like a pendant to ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’, McPherson’s vast 860-page history of the Civil War Era, which I have reviewed at length. Crossroads of Freedom is part of a series called Pivotal Moments in American History. In his introduction McPherson says that, as […]
All posts found when searching for mcpherson
Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, the battle the changed the course of the American Civil War by James M. McPherson (2002)
Posted by Simon on August 2, 2021
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2021/08/02/crossroads-of-freedom-antietam-american-civil-war-james-m-mcpherson/
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (4) by James M. McPherson (1987)
Slavery is the normal condition of the negro… as indispensable to his prosperity and happiness… as liberty is to the whites. (From a petition sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the 56th Virginia regiment against allowing black soldiers to fight for the Confederacy, quoted on page 836) Racism… The signers of the Declaration of […]
Posted by Simon on August 20, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/battle-cry-of-freedom-the-civil-war-era-4-james-m-mcpherson/
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (3) by James M. McPherson (1987)
This is a long book. It takes McPherson about 280 pages before he gets to the outbreak of hostilities, just to paint in the complicated political, economic, legal and social background to the American Civil War. This build-up section is absolutely fascinating, giving insights into a number of deep and enduring aspects of American history […]
Posted by Simon on August 19, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/battle-cry-of-freedom-the-civil-war-era-3-james-m-mcpherson/
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (2) by James M. McPherson (1987)
In mid-19th century America there was a cohort of people who were professional slave hunters. Let’s just reflect on that fact… people whose full-time job it was to reclaim the lost ‘property’ of southern slave owners. How did this come about? The Fugitive Slave Act In 1850 the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act […]
Posted by Simon on August 16, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/battle-cry-of-freedom-the-civil-war-era-2-james-m-mcpherson/
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1) by James M. McPherson (1987)
‘Our political conflicts must be in future between slavery and freedom.’ Whig Congressman Joshua Giddings at the Free Soil convention in 1848 (quoted on page 61) This massive volume (900 pages) is part of the multi-volume Oxford History of America which began publishing back in the 1980s. The civil war is by far the most written-about […]
Posted by Simon on August 14, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/battle-cry-of-freedom-the-civil-war-era-james-m-mcpherson/
Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland (2003) – 2
Including the timeline, the text of Rubicon is 400 pages long. Julius Caesar, whose life and death signified the end of the Republic, makes his first appearance on page 111. In other words, three-quarters of the text is devoted to the 70 or so years covering the super-famous events of: the life of Julius Caesar, […]
Posted by Simon on March 2, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/02/rubicon-the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-the-roman-republic-tom-holland-2/
Books & Boots 