THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607080185
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY BARRETT R. RICHARDSON
LENGTH: 67 lines
DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR
Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned
KENNETH C. DAVIS
William Morrow. 518 pp. $25.
Kenneth C. Davis applies the formula he successfully employed in Don't Know Much About History and Don't Know Much About Geography to the Civil War and the result is a comprehensive and memorable account of the United States' most devastating armed conflict.
Despite his book's title, which suggests a flippant collection of odd bits and pieces laced with humor, Davis is a serious author who strongly supports his thesis that the war was fought over slavery, not states' rights.
In Don't Know Much About the Civil War, Davis combines a question-and-answer format with quotes from participants and observers of the struggle that tore this nation apart. He blends excerpts from wartime documents with a well-crafted, information-packed text. Each chapter lists a chronological summary of ``milestone'' events that occurred during the period covered.
Chapters have catchy titles taken from quotes that appear within them. For example, Chapter One, entitled ``The Wolf by the Ears,'' comes from Thomas Jefferson, who compared slavery with a wolf, saying, ``We can neither hold him or safely let him go.''
Other quotes prefacing chapters:
``I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country subjugate and despoil you of your liberties, property, and honor.'' - Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston.
``If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it - if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it - and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.'' - President Abraham Lincoln.
Also preceding each chapter is a series of tantalizing questions. Some examples:
``If Jefferson Believed What He Wrote, Why Did He Keep Slaves?''
``What Did the Louisiana Purchase Have to Do With the Civil War?''
``Why Did Lincoln Sneak into Washington for His Inauguration?''
``Who Were the `Plug Uglies'?''
``How Did `a Tin Can on a Shingle' Make History?''
Davis joins a long list of contemporary authors who are helping to dispel the romanticism and mythology that surrounded the Civil War at its outset and long after it ended. In his introduction he writes: ``Before the Civil War, warfare was not as horrifying as we have come to view it today. The Civil War, the first `modern war,' had a lot to do with changing people's minds about the `glory of war.''' Davis' book makes a similar contribution.
But the author concludes on a troublesome note: ``The Civil War remains at the core of our greatest national problem: the great racial divide that grew from slavery and was a large part of the reason for the war. It was certainly not settled by the Union victory. . . . Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln predicted that blacks and whites could never live `together on terms of social and political equality.' Has his grim prophesy come true?'' MEMO: Barrett R. Richardson is a retired staff editor who teaches
English part-time at Tidewater Community College. He lives in
Portsmouth. by CNB