Does anyone have a recommendation for a book on the civil war that has a similar feel to it as Ken Burn's civil war docuseries?

I really enjoyed his parts so I'll check this out, thanks

BQ78 said:

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Shelby Foote was the star of the show so his trilogy might be a good start.

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He's not a historian, for the record. You have to take a lot of his stories with a grain of salt.

I have admired Bruce Catton's trilogy on the war since I was a teenager, even though Catton's work is a history of the Army of the Potomac and I am a Southern boy.

I still read the section in the second book, Glory Road, on Gettysburg culminating in Lincoln's Address with awe at the power of Catton's ability to use the English language. He somehow finds such great beauty in such barbarity that I revisit that work again and again.

I am always similarly moved by the ending of the third book, A Stillness at Appomattox.

BQ78 said:

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Oh definitely he tells many of the old myths and legends but he is a great storyteller and writer and overall it is good history, without footnotes.

I know academics like to look down their noses at "non-historians" for not writing about things like "The effects of the cotton gin on women's rights in Clay County, AL" but some non-historians are much better than the "professionals." There is nothing special about being an "historian."

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You don't need a Ph.D to be a good historian, but if you're going to claim to be writing history you need to follow the basic rules of sourcing and evidence. Foote doesn't do that. You may like his pro-Confederate take on a lot of things and he's a gifted narrator, but he's not a historian and his books are problematic enough for me to not consider them history.

BQ78 said:

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You make him sound like Thomas DiLorenzo. Is writing anything pro-Confederate automatically bad history?

What are a few major points you disagree with Foote about? No need to mention some the apocryphal stories he uses for people like Bragg that have been debunked, I would agree with you on that.

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He's not DiLorenzo and I'd never claim that. My point is that a lot of the popularity for his works comes from people more sympathetic to the Confederate cause. I'd have to sit down and pull out my copies of his works to find exact claims or quotes, but off the top of my head, he reifies a lot of the Lost Cause claims about Confederate leaders and privations. He repeats traditional tropes about the war but couches it in some very well-written and compelling language.

Bruce Catton Blue and the Gray


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BQ78 said:

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Shelby Foote was the star of the show so his trilogy might be a good start.

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I have them in my library, on the wait list.