The Coming Fury

The Centennial History of the Civil War, Volume 1

By: Bruce Catton

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times hailed this trilogy as “one of the greatest historical accomplishments of our time”. With stunning detail and insights, America’s foremost Civil War historian recreates the war from its opening months to its final, bloody end. Each volume delivers a complete listening experience. The Coming Fury (Volume 1) covers the split Democratic Convention in the spring of 1860 to the first battle of Bull Run.

©1961 Bruce Catton (P)1989 Recorded Books, LLC

fascinating!

So much info I never knew! Narrator was very clear. my favorite part is the battle of Bull Run.

Outstanding!

Perhaps the best and most historically balanced and in depth review of the events leading up to the Civil War. Highly recommended. Nelson Runger was the perfect narrator choice helping elevate superb writing into real pleasure for the listener. Really looking forward to the rest of the series.

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American Civil War

Bruce Catton’s epic trilogy is awesome for both the reader new to the War and anyone who embraces a detailed story well told! Catton’s brilliance at introducing an extensive host of characters in so few words, yet in a manner that aids in remembering each figure, is astounding.

Freeing the Slaves Was Not the First Idea

What did you love best about The Coming Fury?

I learned more about the complicated underpinnings of the beginnings of the Civil War and the reasons for 13th and 14th Amendments to our constitution. That there were other candidates for the Presidency in 1860 and their perspectives is not well known. That free and enslaved Blacks had a role and aspirations and took actions to gain their freedom is lifted up. The considerable economic importance of the free labor to the US and world economies is another part of our history that is documented. I graduated from Middlebury College, where Bruce Catton was a tough and widely respected history professor. I hadn't taken his courses, but experiencing this history in this way was important and addative to my understanding of American History. Having just visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, this text put several of the important exhibits on the C1 and 2 Levels in bold relief. I recommend the Coming Fury and will now proceed with Catton's other two volumes on the Civil War.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Coming Fury?

Republican and Democratic politics (and the behind the scenes players) leading up to the Civil War was provided in good detail and contrasted with the 2016 Presidential election.

What about Nelson Runger’s performance did you like?

The narration is highly engaging. I was sorry to come end and desired more.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The descriptions of the early battles and the loss of life was moving. The fact that conscripts had three month commissions and very little training, but so much passion -- on both sides was moving as well. The young men did not know what they were getting into. Neither did our nation.

Any additional comments?

Bruce Catton is an excellent historian and should be widely read.

A great writer.

There is nobody better to write about history, then Bruce Catton. He approaches history from a very human perspective and has art and poetry in his writing. He also has great command, not only of the facts, but of the meaning of the facts explaining, in a way that ordinary readers have no problem, understanding his point. It’s a refreshing history and well worth reading, if you want to see what led up to the Civil War in detail, the personalities the assumptions, the conflicts the egos, and how it all played out on the grand stage of America

The politics behind the start of the US Civil War

What Mr Catton provides us in this book is a political history of the start of the American Civil War. The book starts with the opening of the Republican and Democratic Presidential Nominating Conventions, presents the politics and scheming behind the nomination fight and the final success of Abraham Lincoln, the nomination of Stephen Douglas by the Democrats and the Democratic split that eventually gave the public the choice of four Presidential candidates. The book covers the Presidential campaigns of all 4 candidates, the reasons for Mr Lincoln's success as well as the feeling in both the North and South as to who should be President. Mr Catton succeeds in presenting the extraordinary complexity of the voting in the 1860 election which involved southern politicians who wanted to see Lincoln elected, so as to force southern secession from The Union, the desire of those in what was then the American West to see one of their own elected, the northerners who wanted Douglas or Breckinridge elected so as to prevent secession and disabuses the reader of any belief that the politics behind the election was either simple or straight-forward.

The book then follows the events from Mr Lincoln’s election through his inauguration, the political infighting among his political friends and foes alike, the lead up to the start of the fighting with the firing of the canons in Charleston, SC against Fort Sumpter, the fight to keep the border states in the Union and ends with the First Battle of Bull Run. Aside from the description of Bull Run the book is almost completely devoted to the political events with only a smattering of any other battles with the exception of George McClellan’s victories at Philippi and Rich Mountain which catapulted him into the category of American hero.

The single thing that shines through the book is that although it is more than 50 years old Mr Catton’s writing is fresh, full of insight and wonderful to read or listen to. The only negative comment that I could think of was that this book was written in a different social environment than exists in the US today and hence some references to African Americans and slavery may seem a bit cavalier to some. Still, the book shines as an example of what a first class history book can be. It is impossible for me to praise this book highly enough.

The narration by Nelson Runger is first class and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how and why the US Civil War began.

Expertly written history

Bruce Catton is a masterful historian, clearly world-class. This volume is evidence of that mastery. His narrative style makes it easy to project yourself back in time. Highly recommend The Coming Fury.

A Terrible Time In Our History Made Understandable

I have always liked history but even if I didn't this book would have made it more understandable! Read this book and the two that follow and you will know about the American Civil War.

Excellent background, sketchy history

The three-volume history is skewed very much toward the opening year(s), and it is here that Catton excels. He gives a deep survey of the year or two leading up to the secession crisis, something usually passed over or summarized into cliché.

After this, the book is a pleasant enough history for the most part, but it lacks the detail and narrative creativity that I liked so much in Shelby Foote's novelistic history.

Catton spends altogether too much of the series on digressive essays that are no more or less than anti-Confederate propaganda. He is particularly obsessed with the problem of negro slavery, and how it was the central issue of the war. As to justifications for the Confederacy, Catton does not seem to think there were any. The secessionists were vain and deluded fools, while the Federals' defects were minor and routine.

Catton's point of view is identical to the pulpy propaganda that the Union League and the Loyal League cranked out from 1862 to 1865 (and beyond). One wants to say to Catton, Oh grow up!

History Repeats Itself... again

A fascinating recount of how the civil war got started, with a remarkable feeling of looking in a mirror and seeing ourselves, today, perfectly reflected.