A Year in the South: 1865

The True Story of Four Ordinary People Who Lived Through the Most Tumultuous Twelve Months in History

By: Stephen V. Ash

Narrated by: Neal Ghant, Nicholas Techosky, Jeremy Arthur, Teresa DeBerry

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A slave determined to gain freedom, a widow battling poverty and despair, a man of God grappling with spiritual and worldly troubles, and a former Confederate soldier seeking a new life. They lived in the South during 1865 - a year that saw war, disunion, and slavery give way to peace, reconstruction, and emancipation.

Between January and December 1865, these four people witnessed, from very different vantage points, the death of the Old South and the birth of the New South. Civil War historian Stephen V. Ash reconstructs their daily lives, their fears and hopes, and their frustrations and triumphs in vivid detail - telling a dramatic story of real people in a time of great upheaval and offering a fresh perspective on a pivotal moment in history.

©2002 Stephen V. Ash (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Living history.

I always find history more alive when modern historians step aside and let people tell the stories of their own periods. This book was highly useful in my research as a historical fiction writer since it let me see the same period from such different angles.

Excellent audio book

I think I have over a hundred audio books about the Civil War but there is very little available on Audible about the time period after the Civil War. This book helps fill that gap somewhat. You can read the description to understand what the book is about - the author tells the story of several people in the south and how they lived near the end of the war and in the months afterwards. The author does a great job of telling their stories without getting in their way. Everything moves at a quick pace and the only complaint I have is that the book could have been much much longer - that is said in a good way. The book doesn't get bogged down in political correctness - nor is it a lost cause book either, it's just the stories of a few individuals and it's immensely interesting.

From the production side this time Audible actually does a great job with a book they produced themselves. They have different readers for the different people that are highlighted. The book gives you maybe 30-40 mins on someone, then moves on to someone else, and then back to the original person. It's a great way to keep the story moving and keep it interesting. A true 5-star production, the first time I think I could ever say that about something Audible produced.

If you read the summary and it sounds at all interesting to you then don't hesitate to give it a listen.

It's on my repeat list

The best historical pictures contain activities of daily life. People doing what they did every day. To anyone who thinks they understand a time period of the past, I would say this - try to write down in detail what they did every day - not in broad strokes but in detail. It's the details that make the story.
Reading how communities traded and bartered, how salt was extracted and brought north, how the south allocated certain provisions and collected taxes, the dangers created as local militias interpreted the war - it's all fascinating and very well told.