-
This Republic of Suffering
- Death and the American Civil War
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $16.34
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Necessary Trouble
- Growing Up at Midcentury
- By: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Narrated by: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. To be a privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was to be expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For young Drew Gilpin Faust, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial privilege proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become “well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young lady that her upbringing imposed, she found resistance was the necessary price of survival.
-
-
My Life written by Her.
- By Jacqueline L Larner on 09-03-23
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
-
Confederates in the Attic
- Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
-
-
A Must Read for Civil War Buffs!
- By Ms Winston on 12-06-14
By: Tony Horwitz
-
The Field of Blood
- Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
- By: Joanne B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Joanne B. Freeman
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the US Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery.
-
-
fascinating look at an untold aspect of US.history
- By P. Cardella on 09-27-18
-
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
-
-
Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
-
Necessary Trouble
- Growing Up at Midcentury
- By: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Narrated by: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. To be a privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was to be expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For young Drew Gilpin Faust, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial privilege proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become “well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young lady that her upbringing imposed, she found resistance was the necessary price of survival.
-
-
My Life written by Her.
- By Jacqueline L Larner on 09-03-23
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
-
Confederates in the Attic
- Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
-
-
A Must Read for Civil War Buffs!
- By Ms Winston on 12-06-14
By: Tony Horwitz
-
The Field of Blood
- Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
- By: Joanne B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Joanne B. Freeman
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the US Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery.
-
-
fascinating look at an untold aspect of US.history
- By P. Cardella on 09-27-18
-
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
-
-
Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
-
The Crooked Path to Abolition
- Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
- By: James Oakes
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An award-winning scholar uncovers the guiding principles of Lincoln's antislavery strategies.
-
-
Lincoln’s Transformation
- By A View from Greensboro on 12-04-22
By: James Oakes
-
Fateful Lightning
- A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction
- By: Allen C. Guelzo
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Fateful Lightning, two-time Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo offers a marvelous portrait of the Civil War and its era, covering not only the major figures and epic battles, but also politics, religion, gender, race, diplomacy, and technology. He examines the strategy, the tactics, and the logistics of the Civil War and brings the most recent historical thinking to bear on emancipation, the presidency and the war powers, the blockade and international law, and the role of intellectuals, North and South.
-
-
The worst part of this book is it's title
- By Rodney on 11-19-13
By: Allen C. Guelzo
-
The Second Founding
- How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation's foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time.
-
-
Excellent book - problematic narrator
- By Jennifer on 10-01-19
By: Eric Foner
-
Up Home
- One Girl's Journey
- By: Ruth J. Simmons
- Narrated by: Ruth J. Simmons
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity, no books to read. Yet despite this—or, in her words, because of it—Simmons would become the first Black president of an Ivy League university. The former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M, Texas’s oldest HBCU, Simmons has inspired generations of students as she herself made history.
-
-
Wonderful Connections!
- By Lynda Dickson on 04-15-24
By: Ruth J. Simmons
-
Frederick Douglass
- Prophet of Freedom
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.
-
-
The sound of rollerskating in sand
- By Rico X Ludovici on 02-06-19
By: David W. Blight
-
A Short History of Reconstruction, Updated Edition
- 1863-1877
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans - black and white - responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the quest of emancipated slaves' searching for economic autonomy and equal citizenship and describes the remodeling of Southern society; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and one committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.
-
-
Depth and Deceptive
- By Amazon Customer on 08-31-19
By: Eric Foner
-
An Assassin in Utopia
- The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder
- By: Susan Wels
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was heaven on earth—and, some whispered, the devil’s garden. Thousands came by trains and carriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wild woodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds of Ayrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place—especially the women, with their queer cropped hair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of this strange outpost worked and slept together—without sin, they claimed.
-
-
Just Okay. That's it.
- By Jeffy on 04-18-23
By: Susan Wels
-
The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
-
-
A Slog for Sure
- By Brux on 04-13-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
-
Custer's Trials
- A Life on the Frontier of a New America
- By: T.J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History. In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person - capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
-
-
Custer and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-17-15
By: T.J. Stiles
-
The Word of Promise Audio Bible—New King James Version, NKJV: Complete Bible
- By: Thomas Nelson Inc.
- Narrated by: Jason Alexander, Joan Allen, Richard Dreyfuss, and others
- Length: 98 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an original music score by composer Stefano Mainetti (Abba Pater), feature-film quality sound effects, and compelling narration by Michael York and the work of over 500 actors, the The Word of Promise Audio Bible will immerse listeners in the dramatic reality of the scriptures as never before. Each beloved book of the Bible comes to life with outstanding performances by Jim Caviezel as Jesus, Richard Dreyfuss as Moses, Gary Sinise as David, Jason Alexander as Joseph, Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene, Stacy Keach as Paul, Louis Gossett, Jr. as John...
-
-
Lovely...needs a section guide. I made one
- By A. Lee on 08-29-16
-
The War That Forged a Nation
- Why the Civil War Still Matters
- By: James McPherson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson considers why the Civil War remains so deeply embedded in our national psyche and identity. The drama and tragedy of the war help explain why the Civil War remains a topic of interest. But the legacy of the war extends far beyond historical interest or scholarly attention.
-
-
A Different Kind of History from McPherson
- By Carole T. on 08-11-16
By: James McPherson
-
Andersonville
- By: MacKinlay Kantor
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 37 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed as the greatest novel ever written about the War Between the States, this searing Pulitzer Prize-winning book captures all the glory and shame of America's most tragic conflict in the vivid, crowded world of Andersonville, and the people who lived outside its barricades. Based on the author's extensive research and nearly 25 years in the making, MacKinlay Kantor's best-selling masterwork tells the heartbreaking story of the notorious Georgia prison where 50,000 Northern soldiers suffered.
-
-
Worthy of the Pulitzer
- By Gillian on 03-22-15
By: MacKinlay Kantor
Publisher's summary
Throughout, the viewpoints of soldiers, families, statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons and nurses, Northerners and Southerners, slaveholders, freed people, the most exalted, and the most humble are brought together to give a vivid understanding of the Civil War's widely shared reality.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Race and Reunion
- The Civil War in American Memory
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers' reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial.
-
-
How we remember matters
- By Adam Shields on 04-03-19
By: David W. Blight
-
Women of the Blue & Gray
- By: Marianne Monson
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hidden among the photographs, uniforms, revolvers, and war medals of the Civil War are the remarkable stories of some of the most unlikely heroes: women. This audiobook brings to light the incredible stories of women from the Civil War that remain relevant to our nation today. Each woman's experience helps us see a truer, fuller, richer version of what really happened in this country during this time period.
-
-
Style kills the stories
- By KHdeB on 01-12-21
By: Marianne Monson
-
The Gettysburg Gospel
- The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
- By: Gabor Boritt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The literature of the Gettysburg Address tends to fall into one of two extremes. At one end are those books that maintain that Lincoln wrote his speech hastily, even on a scrap of paper on the train en route from Washington to Gettysburg. In this version, Lincoln delivered his remarks to an uncomprehending public, which applauded politely, failing to appreciate his genius. Many of the books that argued this point of view are out of print today, but the myths and legends live on.
-
-
add this to your Lincoln bookshelf
- By D. Littman on 01-26-07
By: Gabor Boritt
-
Looking for the Good War
- American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Elizabeth D. Samet
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans - all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States' "exceptional" history and destiny.
-
-
Essential reading for military officers and political decision makers.
- By Arlene S. Burke on 02-23-22
-
The Better Angels of Our Nature
- Freemasonry in the American Civil War
- By: Michael A. Halleran
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the enduring yet little-examined themes in Civil War lore is the widespread belief that on the field of battle and afterward, members of Masonic lodges would give aid and comfort to wounded or captured enemy Masons, often at great personal sacrifice and danger. This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides.
-
-
Perfect for current Freemasons and CSW folk
- By MolllyT on 06-03-15
-
Russia
- The Story of War
- By: Gregory Carleton
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No nation is a stranger to war, but for Russians war is a central part of who they are. Their "motherland" has been the battlefield where some of the largest armies have clashed, the most savage battles have been fought, the highest death tolls paid. Having prevailed over Mongol hordes and vanquished Napoleon and Hitler, many Russians believe no other nation has sacrificed so much for the world.
-
-
A bit dry and academic
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-16-17
By: Gregory Carleton
-
Race and Reunion
- The Civil War in American Memory
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers' reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial.
-
-
How we remember matters
- By Adam Shields on 04-03-19
By: David W. Blight
-
Women of the Blue & Gray
- By: Marianne Monson
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hidden among the photographs, uniforms, revolvers, and war medals of the Civil War are the remarkable stories of some of the most unlikely heroes: women. This audiobook brings to light the incredible stories of women from the Civil War that remain relevant to our nation today. Each woman's experience helps us see a truer, fuller, richer version of what really happened in this country during this time period.
-
-
Style kills the stories
- By KHdeB on 01-12-21
By: Marianne Monson
-
The Gettysburg Gospel
- The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
- By: Gabor Boritt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The literature of the Gettysburg Address tends to fall into one of two extremes. At one end are those books that maintain that Lincoln wrote his speech hastily, even on a scrap of paper on the train en route from Washington to Gettysburg. In this version, Lincoln delivered his remarks to an uncomprehending public, which applauded politely, failing to appreciate his genius. Many of the books that argued this point of view are out of print today, but the myths and legends live on.
-
-
add this to your Lincoln bookshelf
- By D. Littman on 01-26-07
By: Gabor Boritt
-
Looking for the Good War
- American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Elizabeth D. Samet
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans - all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States' "exceptional" history and destiny.
-
-
Essential reading for military officers and political decision makers.
- By Arlene S. Burke on 02-23-22
-
The Better Angels of Our Nature
- Freemasonry in the American Civil War
- By: Michael A. Halleran
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the enduring yet little-examined themes in Civil War lore is the widespread belief that on the field of battle and afterward, members of Masonic lodges would give aid and comfort to wounded or captured enemy Masons, often at great personal sacrifice and danger. This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides.
-
-
Perfect for current Freemasons and CSW folk
- By MolllyT on 06-03-15
-
Russia
- The Story of War
- By: Gregory Carleton
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No nation is a stranger to war, but for Russians war is a central part of who they are. Their "motherland" has been the battlefield where some of the largest armies have clashed, the most savage battles have been fought, the highest death tolls paid. Having prevailed over Mongol hordes and vanquished Napoleon and Hitler, many Russians believe no other nation has sacrificed so much for the world.
-
-
A bit dry and academic
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-16-17
By: Gregory Carleton
-
The American Miracle
- Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic
- By: Michael Medved
- Narrated by: Michael Medved
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the United States displays an uncanny pattern: At moments of crisis, when the odds against success seem overwhelming and disaster looks imminent, fate intervenes to provide deliverance and progress. Historians may categorize these incidents as happy accidents, callous crimes, or the products of brilliant leadership, but the most notable leaders of the past 400 years have identified this good fortune as something else - a reflection of divine providence.
-
-
Amazing Book
- By Larry on 12-01-16
By: Michael Medved
-
The New York Times: Disunion
- Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's Election to the Emancipation Proclamation
- By: Ted Widmer - editor
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck, Mark Boyett, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new collection of modern commentary - from scholars, historians, and Civil War buffs - on the significant events of the Civil War, culled from The New York Times' popular Disunion online journal.
-
-
Excellent audiobook! Love this format!
- By BVerité on 03-17-15
-
Harriet Tubman
- The Road to Freedom
- By: Catherine Clinton
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated for her courageous exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of 19th-century America's most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman?
-
-
Returning this book
- By KMS on 07-11-18
-
America Aflame
- How the Civil War Created a Nation
- By: David Goldfield
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 27 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. Where past scholars have interpreted the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere.
-
-
Great and indepth
- By Kindle Customer on 06-02-14
By: David Goldfield
-
Lincoln's Greatest Speech
- The Second Inaugural
- By: Ronald C. White Jr.
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After four years of unspeakable horror and sacrifice on both sides, the Civil War was about to end. On March 4, 1865, at his second inauguration, President Lincoln did not offer the North the victory speech it yearned for; nor did he blame the South solely for the sin of slavery. Calling the whole nation to account, Lincoln offered a moral framework for peace and reconciliation. Eventually this "with malice toward none" address would be accepted and revered as one of the greatest in the nation's history.
-
-
Ronald White gets Lincoln right
- By Ronnie Brown on 12-04-18
-
Frederick Douglass
- Prophet of Freedom
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.
-
-
The sound of rollerskating in sand
- By Rico X Ludovici on 02-06-19
By: David W. Blight
-
The Thin Light of Freedom
- The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America
- By: Edward L. Ayers
- Narrated by: James Edward Thomas
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the crux of America's history stand two astounding events: the immediate and complete destruction of the most powerful system of slavery in the modern world, followed by a political reconstruction in which new constitutions established the fundamental rights of citizens for formerly enslaved people. Few people living in 1860 would have dared imagine either event, and yet, in retrospect, both seem to have been inevitable. In a beautifully crafted narrative, Edward L. Ayers restores the drama of the unexpected to the history of the Civil War.
-
-
great history
- By Linda Sisco on 11-30-17
By: Edward L. Ayers
-
After the Civil War
- The Heroes, Villains, Soldiers, and Civilians Who Changed America
- By: James Robertson
- Narrated by: Barry Press
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Returning to the turbulent days of a nation divided, best-selling author and acclaimed historian James Robertson explores 70 fascinating figures who shaped America during Reconstruction and beyond. Relentless politicians, intrepid fighters, cunning innovators - the times called for bold moves, and this resilient generation would not disappoint.
-
-
Just a southern lost cause book
- By Russell Hansen on 03-24-21
By: James Robertson
-
This Mighty Scourge
- Perspectives on the Civil War
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom and many other award-winning books, James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. Now, in this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the most enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history.
-
-
An Introduction to McPherson
- By Roy on 05-03-09
-
One Nation, Under Gods
- A New American History
- By: Peter Manseau
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the heart of the nation's spiritual history are audacious and often violent scenes. But the Puritans and the shining city on the hill give us just one way to understand the United States. Rather than recite American history from a Christian vantage point, Peter Manseau proves that what really happened is worth a close, fresh look.
-
-
Tapestry of different pieces makes for a whole
- By Gary on 03-23-15
By: Peter Manseau
-
Lincoln's Battle with God
- A President's Struggle with Faith and What It Meant for America
- By: Stephen Mansfield
- Narrated by: Stephen Mansfield
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abraham Lincoln is the most beloved of all US presidents. He freed the slaves, gave the world some of its most beautiful phrases, and redefined the meaning of America. He did all of this with wisdom, compassion, and wit. Yet, throughout his life, Lincoln fought with God. In his early years in Illinois, he rejected even the existence of God and became the village atheist. In time, this changed but still he wrestled with the truth of the Bible, preachers, doctrines, the will of God, the providence of God, and then, finally, God’s purposes in the Civil War.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Thomas Streveler on 07-23-21
-
The War That Forged a Nation
- Why the Civil War Still Matters
- By: James McPherson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson considers why the Civil War remains so deeply embedded in our national psyche and identity. The drama and tragedy of the war help explain why the Civil War remains a topic of interest. But the legacy of the war extends far beyond historical interest or scholarly attention.
-
-
A Different Kind of History from McPherson
- By Carole T. on 08-11-16
By: James McPherson
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Necessary Trouble
- Growing Up at Midcentury
- By: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Narrated by: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. To be a privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was to be expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For young Drew Gilpin Faust, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial privilege proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become “well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young lady that her upbringing imposed, she found resistance was the necessary price of survival.
-
-
My Life written by Her.
- By Jacqueline L Larner on 09-03-23
-
Confederates in the Attic
- Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
-
-
A Must Read for Civil War Buffs!
- By Ms Winston on 12-06-14
By: Tony Horwitz
-
The War That Forged a Nation
- Why the Civil War Still Matters
- By: James McPherson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson considers why the Civil War remains so deeply embedded in our national psyche and identity. The drama and tragedy of the war help explain why the Civil War remains a topic of interest. But the legacy of the war extends far beyond historical interest or scholarly attention.
-
-
A Different Kind of History from McPherson
- By Carole T. on 08-11-16
By: James McPherson
-
Redemption
- The Last Battle of the Civil War
- By: Nicholas Lemann
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.
-
-
A good accouting of the post Civil War suffering
- By KMB Consumer on 08-10-07
By: Nicholas Lemann
-
Apostles of Disunion
- Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War: Fifteenth Anniversary Edition
- By: Charles B. Dew
- Narrated by: Mitchell Dorian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Dew’s Apostles of Disunion has established itself as a modern classic and an indispensable account of the Southern states’ secession from the Union. Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the book offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were at the heart of our great national crisis.
-
-
Racist Take - Leaves our a lot of information
- By naw74 on 04-15-21
By: Charles B. Dew
-
War Crimes Against Southern Civilians
- By: Walter Brian Cisco
- Narrated by: Bill Izard
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first book-length survey of the Union's "hard war" against the people of the Confederacy. It chronicles the St. Louis massacre - the events leading to, and suffering caused by, the federal decree that forced 20,000 Missouri civilians into exile. Thoroughly researched from sources including letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts of the time, it also pays attention to the suffering of African-American victims of Federal brutality. The title serves to set the record straight, to show that the war on civilians was not justified or necessary to save the union.
-
-
Certainly War Crimes
- By cat mccormick on 11-10-22
-
Necessary Trouble
- Growing Up at Midcentury
- By: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Narrated by: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. To be a privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was to be expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For young Drew Gilpin Faust, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial privilege proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become “well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young lady that her upbringing imposed, she found resistance was the necessary price of survival.
-
-
My Life written by Her.
- By Jacqueline L Larner on 09-03-23
-
Confederates in the Attic
- Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
-
-
A Must Read for Civil War Buffs!
- By Ms Winston on 12-06-14
By: Tony Horwitz
-
The War That Forged a Nation
- Why the Civil War Still Matters
- By: James McPherson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson considers why the Civil War remains so deeply embedded in our national psyche and identity. The drama and tragedy of the war help explain why the Civil War remains a topic of interest. But the legacy of the war extends far beyond historical interest or scholarly attention.
-
-
A Different Kind of History from McPherson
- By Carole T. on 08-11-16
By: James McPherson
-
Redemption
- The Last Battle of the Civil War
- By: Nicholas Lemann
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.
-
-
A good accouting of the post Civil War suffering
- By KMB Consumer on 08-10-07
By: Nicholas Lemann
-
Apostles of Disunion
- Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War: Fifteenth Anniversary Edition
- By: Charles B. Dew
- Narrated by: Mitchell Dorian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Dew’s Apostles of Disunion has established itself as a modern classic and an indispensable account of the Southern states’ secession from the Union. Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the book offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were at the heart of our great national crisis.
-
-
Racist Take - Leaves our a lot of information
- By naw74 on 04-15-21
By: Charles B. Dew
-
War Crimes Against Southern Civilians
- By: Walter Brian Cisco
- Narrated by: Bill Izard
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first book-length survey of the Union's "hard war" against the people of the Confederacy. It chronicles the St. Louis massacre - the events leading to, and suffering caused by, the federal decree that forced 20,000 Missouri civilians into exile. Thoroughly researched from sources including letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts of the time, it also pays attention to the suffering of African-American victims of Federal brutality. The title serves to set the record straight, to show that the war on civilians was not justified or necessary to save the union.
-
-
Certainly War Crimes
- By cat mccormick on 11-10-22
-
A Worse Place than Hell
- How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
- By: John Matteson
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln's government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound repercussions in the country's law, literature, politics, and popular mythology. Taken together, their stories offer a striking restatement of what it means to be American.
-
-
Fantastic Intertwining!
- By Peter H. Christensen on 09-02-21
By: John Matteson
-
The Quartermaster
- Montgomery C. Meigs, Lincoln's General, Master Builder of the Union Army
- By: Robert O'Harrow Jr.
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born to a well-to-do, connected family in 1816, Montgomery C. Meigs graduated from West Point as an engineer. He helped build America's forts and served under Lt. Robert E. Lee to make navigation improvements on the Mississippi River. As a young man, he designed the Washington aqueducts in a city where people were dying from contaminated water. He built the spectacular wings and the massive dome of the brand-new US Capitol.
-
-
Engaging Biography
- By Jean on 03-09-18
-
American Colonies: The Settling of North America
- Penguin History of the United States, Book 1
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States series, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from millennia past through the decades of Western colonization and conquest and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast.
-
-
Excellent ..
- By aintbuyinit on 09-03-18
By: Alan Taylor
-
This Hallowed Ground
- A History of the Civil War
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is the classic one-volume history of the American Civil War by Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton. Covering events from the prelude of the conflict to the death of Lincoln, Catton blends a gripping narrative with deep, yet unassuming, scholarship to bring the war alive in an almost novelistic way. It is this gift for narrative that led contemporary critics to compare this book to War and Peace, and call it a "modern Iliad." Now over 50 years old, This Hallowed Ground remains one of the best-loved and admired general Civil War books.
-
-
Still one of the best!
- By Homer on 04-21-19
By: Bruce Catton
-
Sweet Taste of Liberty
- A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America
- By: W. Caleb McDaniel
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: In 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500.
-
-
insightful and educational
- By Mark W. on 06-29-20
-
The Early Morning of War: Bull Run, 1861 (Campaigns and Commanders Series)
- By: Edward G. Longacre
- Narrated by: Aaron Killian
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Union and Confederate forces squared off along Bull Run on July 21, 1861, the Federals expected this first major military campaign would bring an early end to the Civil War. But when Confederate troops launched a strong counterattack, both sides realized the war would be longer and costlier than anticipated. First Bull Run, or First Manassas, set the stage for four years of bloody conflict that forever changed the political, social, and economic fabric of the nation. It also introduced the commanders, tactics, and weaponry that would define the American way of war through the turn of the twentieth century.
-
-
Best book of this early battle
- By Bradley Behrhorst on 09-02-22
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
-
Searching for Black Confederates
- The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth
- By: Kevin M. Levin
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth.
-
-
modern political commentary
- By Rob Warren on 11-05-19
By: Kevin M. Levin
-
38 Nooses
- Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End
- By: Scott W. Berg
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In August 1862, after decades of broken treaties, increasing hardship, and relentless encroachment on their lands, a group of Dakota warriors convened a council at the tepee of their leader, Little Crow. Knowing the strength and resilience of the young American nation, Little Crow counseled caution, but anger won the day. Forced to either lead his warriors in a war he knew they could not win or leave them to their fates, he declared, "[Little Crow] is not a coward: he will die with you."
-
-
Powerful condemnation of Manifest Destiny
- By Buretto on 09-26-19
By: Scott W. Berg
-
The Road to Disunion Volume II
- Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861
- By: William W. Freehling
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 25 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extreme fringe in the South took charge, first in South Carolina and Mississippi, but then throughout the lower South, sounding the drum roll for secession. This is the first book to fully document how this decided minority of Southern hotspurs took hold of the secessionist issue and drove the South out of the Union. William Freehling provides compelling profiles of the leaders of this movement. Throughout the narrative, he evokes a world of fascinating characters and places as he captures the drama of one of America's most important - and least understood - stories.
-
-
Very Informative
- By Paul D. Stancil on 09-13-19
-
Bloody Spring
- Forty Days That Sealed the Confederacy's Fate
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4th, Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They fought for 40 days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg. The campaign cost 90,000 men - the largest loss the war had seen.
-
-
Skip this! Get Catton's Stillness at Appomattox
- By BVerité on 10-19-14
By: Joseph Wheelan
-
Conquered
- Why the Army of Tennessee Failed
- By: Larry J. Daniel
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Operating in the vast and varied trans-Appalachian west, the Army of Tennessee was crucially important to the military fate of the Confederacy. But under the principal leadership of generals such as Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and John Bell Hood, it won few major battles, and many regard its inability to halt steady Union advances into the Confederate heartland as a matter of failed leadership.
-
-
Alas, alas
- By Charles on 08-07-20
By: Larry J. Daniel
What listeners say about This Republic of Suffering
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angela Greene
- 08-01-15
amazing book, great narration!
Every American should read this book to understand the true cost of the Civil War
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LissAnn
- 12-02-17
Astonishing!
I now have a great understanding of the magnitude and effects of this war on the men and women that had to endure.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Roy
- 08-23-09
Vivid Insights
Drew Gilpin Faust has added something valuable to the popular literature on the Civil War in "This Republic of Suffering." Focusing on the consequences of war rather than the battles and generals, Faust sets the conflict in human context. He links the death and suffering to public policy, record keeping, current attitudes, funeral practices and all manner of things which changed as a result of the battles.
The first half of the book was the most valuable to me. After that Faust digresses into the history of the mortuary business, accounting for the dead and religion. The religion section was weakest in my view. Statements were made that were not checked unrelated to the Civil War. For example, Faust asserts that the Bible sets the reation at 6,000 years. This is untrue so far as the Canon is concerned. At least I could not find it when I double checked. Individuals who have read the Bible sometimes speculate and calculate that number of years. This is a huge difference. The author just seemed to take a stereotypical view of religion in general that I questioned the entire section. Everyone cannot be an expert in every field so I don't fault the author for this chapter nor do I question his motivation.
That said,Faust has made a great contribuiton to our understanding of the human costs of the war and its continued effects on our daily lives - apart from racial issues.
This book is informative, surprising, entertaining, disturbing, and well written. The reading is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C. Harris
- 09-15-21
"The work of Death" - a compelling theme
The central theme of this book is "The work of death". It analyzes how death and dying worked in Civil War-era society, how it transformed Judeo-Christian, mostly fundamentalist, men when they killed, and how industry and the service sector had to transform to handle the disposition of the remains of so many men who died far from home. I understood, in a statistical sense, the number of wounded and dead at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, but I never thought about how a soldier's remains were identified and how their family was notified. We take "dog tags", National Cemeteries, and War Department notification for granted, but these things were created during and after the Civil War.
The narrator is sometimes a bit dramatic and if the subject matter were more dryly historical, it may have been more off-putting. However, her drama, in the face of the often ghastly imagery of Civil War dead, kind of worked.
My main complaint is that the book is often repetitive. Some themes, like that of The Good Death, are revisited repeatedly; more than is necessary to illustrate the author's point.
All-in-all, this is a compelling book. I heard about it while listening to an equally compelling podcast called Death, et seq which deals with the disposition of the dead and the law. It mentioned the book in the context of funereal and burial practices, including embalming, that originated during the Civil war era.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Phillip Goodson
- 01-30-10
Good book - terrible narration
The narrator reminded me of the voice of Rudolph in the old claymation cartoon, but the book was well written and informative.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- D. Littman
- 04-21-08
a unique civil war perspective
This is a wonderful book. A new & unique twist on understanding the Civil War, which is an amazing accomplishment given all that there is already. Beautifully written and beautifully read. Each chapter/subject seems to roll seamlessly into the next, so you hardly notice the page (I mean minutes) roll by. One of the best history books I've listened to from Audible in several years.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
30 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Dave Cline
- 12-13-09
Awesome Book
This book revealed to me so much about our present culture, i.e. the southern bible belt.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rev. Enid A. Virago
- 02-21-17
Good information but overly dramatic narration
This gave some new information to me on the mindset around death. I was surprised to find there was a manner the dying was expected to under take...the good death and how that manner reassured family that the dying person would go to heaven. It gives an interesting contrast to hospital deaths today or the reaction to unexpected deaths. Good book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peg Kinsman
- 11-24-20
Simply stunning.
The book was well researched and eloquently presented. The reading of it itself was lilting and smooth.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Dallas
- 09-14-08
Schoolmarm narrator
The book is well researched and interesting(and somewhat tedious if you are not "into" Civil War history) . The narrators treatment of letters and papers from the period is a problem however. She adopts a schoolmarm tone that is both dismissive of and condescending to the people that wrote the documents. I found that irritating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful