This Mighty Scourge

Perspectives on the Civil War

By: James M. McPherson

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Listeners will find insightful pieces on such intriguing figures as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Jesse James, and William Tecumseh Sherman, and on such vital issues as Confederate military strategy, the failure of peace negotiations to end the war, and the realities and myths of the Confederacy.

Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, and packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War.

©2007 James M. McPherson (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"It will seduce anyone, Civil War neophyte or fanatic, for its authority and judgments....There is not a bad chapter in this book. This Mighty Scourge is a marvelous read from a master historian. Like all good history, what it makes you want to do is know more." ( Boston Globe)

Very informative and covers all the bases

Really interesting stuff that includes why some narratives (even if false or exaggerated) still remain. Loved the parts about Grant, Confederate holdouts after the war, and the in-depth discussion of slavery the cause of the war.

Very interesting

I found the essays included in this book to be informative and interesting. I especially found illuminating the chapter about the repurposing of secession from preservation and extension of slavery to one of states’ rights. Where I currently reside, I still hear locals aver that the war
was “states rights” not slavery.

Great insight into topics on Civil War era

I enjoyed this and learned a lot. McPherson discusses different topics and figures related to the Civil War and its historiography. I recommend it for those who have some familiarity with the history of the period.

Excellent collection of essays

Do not expect to read a comprehensive study of the Civil War. This is a collection of essays covering various topics, such as an excellent bio of Jesse James, or the way post-war Southern lobbies managed to change the contents of history textbooks dealing with the Civil War and deterred scholars from making independent search on this topic in Southern colleges.

great condensed history-superior narrator!

For a concise review of the Civil War, and several intriguing points of the war I had not considered, this book was great. I felt the narrator was superb!

Brilliant insights into the Civil War

A beautiful and deep book that holds great relevance for our own times. Hopefully we can learn enough from America’s tragic and terrible history to avoid the same mistakes. I will buy more of McPherson’s books after listening to this.

Great book- the reader was annoying however.

The reader with lack of voice influction, etc.
Just about drove me to distraction.
Sounded like Paul Harvey. Good book overall however. Enjoyed it. Just problem with the readers style.

great historical insight, strange narration

the narrator had a strange tonal pattern to his style while he was reading the regular text. But then when he was acting in Persona, he was fantastic. Again, the historical insights were quite satisfying and enlightening. Great scholarship.

Each essay and review is illuminating...

… and each is a model of scholarship and good intelligent writing. If you’ve read and admired McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Freedom,” generally regarded as the best one-volume history of the Civil War, you’ll like this collection of his shorter pieces. His dismantling of the Jesse James myth is particularly memorable. My one slight objection is that his liberal contempt for latter-day Confederate apologists is so relentless that it’s sometimes a bit off-putting.

An eye opener.

Much like the way people should get the current events news, this book looks at history through multiple perspectives. Addressing the issues and many points of view affected by things as either arbitrary as date of publication to rationality of the author, this book was a breath of fresh air for an abridged view of the Civil War.