Adam Goodheart

Last month I started reading "Storm Over the Land," by Carl Sandburg, and realized I didn't remember enough about the actual events of the Civil War -- not the general gist but the specific timeline -- to enjoy Sandburg's lyrical, poetic account, billed as "a profile of the Civil War." It glances at many events, or makes quick references to people, and I knew I was missing out because I didn't really know what those events and people were, aside from generally knowing they were Civil War-y. (It's like reading Thomas Carlisle on the French Revolution, which he wrote while events were still so fresh in everyone's minds that he could namedrop.)

So I took some advice from Lisa Bu's TED Talk, and found a second book to pair with it.

And so far, "1861" is everything I wanted. It contains lots of facts, a good plain explanation of events, but it's also beautifully written and surprising on every page.

What I can't get enough of, what just continually blows my mind, is how desperate the South was (and some of the North) to keep slavery alive. In the book, I'm just to the point of the Crittenden Compromise and the proposed Corwin amendment to the constitution. It's astonishing to think as a country how close we were to not only preserving but encouraging human slavery, and what "1861" does well is help you see how truly not-that-long-ago that happened, and how very like us the people were who almost pulled it off. It's amazing to think we have photographs, not woodcuts or paintings but photos, of people who advocated for human slavery on the floor of the US Congress.… (mais)

Góð yfirferð um aðdraganda og upphaf þrælastríðsins í BNA. Vel skrifuð og rannsökuð og Goodheart fjallar ítarlega um félagsleg áhrif einstakra atburða á samfélagið í Norðurríkjunum. Ekki oft sem maður fær slíka innsýn í söguna en um leið afhjúpar þetta helsta galla bókarinnar að mínu mati. Á sama tíma og hún er kynnt sem sagan um aðdraganda borgarastríðsins þá fjallar hún eingöngu um norðurríkin og hvernig samfélagið sameinaðist á bak við forsetann í því að berjast gegn Suðurríkunum.… (mais)