Brian

Enlightening historical drama

Unique perspectives from well known figures in our country's history

The only thing I was not a huge fan of was how the narrator spoke with a "mexican" accent when quoting mexicans. It seemed to imbue character to a quotation that may have been taken out of context.

I have learned a few interesting facts about the time period of the civil war and the characters involved, however the facts are hidden in tediously hard to follow accounts of military maneuvers. This book is a very detailed account of the military exploits and I am not familiar with the geography of the battlefields, nor am I educated in military strategy. Most of the information was lost to me. The tidbits of information gained about characters such as U.S. Grant, or Jefferson Davis, for example, were quite interesting and welcomed. Unfortuntely I found myself extremely bored listening as the reader went on and on about things that were not interesting and very difficult to follow.

No. There are so many characters that the book references, and many times I didn't know if they were commanders or soldiers for the Union or the Confederate. By the time I'd figure out who the character was, the story was already on to the next character or the next battle. This created alot of confusion and was a main contributer to the book's difficulty for me to follow.

If you are a military buff and/or interested in the battles fought during the Civil war this is a great book. The detail and the passion which the author writes with are impressive. Unfortunately I am not a military buff, and my motivation for reading about the Civil war was to learn more about civilian life and the political events that shaped and were shaped by the event. My interests were not often touched upon and therefore this was not the book for me.