Not what I expected

I was expecting another Civil War shoot-em up, with endless battle details. This book was terrific and dealt with the deeply rooted causes of this war. I have read and listened to many books on this conflict, but I learned many things I had never known. One of the most surprising was that Northern abolitionists loved the Declaration of Independence, yet felt totally betrayed by the Constitution.

The author traces the progress of ideas through the lives and writings of important historical figures who we seldom hear about.

53 people found this helpful

Wide Awake

I don't know what to praise more- the info in this book, the narration, or the writing. After a while, you begin to ask how many Civil War books can a nation produce? What new can be said and done? This book is unique in that it focuses more on the attitudes and influences on the time leading up to the full-blown war. Yes, I knew what a Wide Awake was before reading this book, but this author succeeded in truly making me 'feel' what a seventeen year old kid in New England must have felt as he saw his friends donning capes and deciding to stand against disunion. This book has a sort of magic to it that other civil war books lack. I have enjoyed very much Battle Cry of Freedom, and books like it that lay out the battles and the results of each, but this book truly enriched my understanding of what someone like me (And very likely these people were my ancestors) felt as he/she had to choose whether to lay down their life to make way for a truly free America.

42 people found this helpful

Moving and enlightening

I first learned of this book by hearing author Adam Goodheart interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. My interest was immediately aroused, and I'm very glad I purchased "1861-The Civil War Awakening". To read this detailed account of the first year of the Civil War provided me with a fresh perspective. Adam Goodheart mentioned in his interview that he wished to shine a spotlight on the very beginning of a historic war, seeing parallels with 9/11. (In that what may be later viewed as a "natural unfolding of history" is, at the time, often chaotic and uncertain, and profoundly influenced by key individuals. A most colorful as well as eye-opening account, at least for history novices like myself.

15 people found this helpful

Exactly what history books should be

The best history you can find, the most engaging and educational, are books that make the history happen now, that make it come alive and that present the people involved as real humans with real difficulties and differences of opinion. 1861, by that standard, is one of the best history books I've ever read.

This is not about battles, but about the great debate waged in politics, in livings rooms, on lecture circuits, in the halls of Congress, and on every street corner. We learn about the organizations that marched, the editorials written, the reasons given for southerners splitting off from the US, and for the Northerners who wanted to let them leave and those who wanted to fight to keep them.

We see our Civil War as a morality play acted out on domestic soil, with a right and wrong side. But history is so much more interesting than that. There were dozens of sides and views to the issues that split our country apart and this book examins them in detail. If I had a criticism, I would say this book doesn't examine the characters of the south in very much detail. It discusses all the moral, legal and economic reasons they gave for splitting away, but I wanted to see so much more. That however, happens with the best books, doesnt it. You just want it to be longer, to never end. And this is one of the best books I've read.

11 people found this helpful

Excellent!

At last an academic treatment of the historical context of the Civil War that is not a dry laundry list of dates and arcane details. Goodheart manages to bring historically accurate information together in such a way that the listener learns of the events of the day as if he or she were a well-informed and perhaps well-connected citizen of the period; someone who knows the backgrounds and personalities of the players involved and is privy to all the details of the events and their significance. This is everything a good history should be and is an invaluable resource for understanding this fascinating period of American history.

46 people found this helpful

Fascinating.

Goodheart has presented one of the best looks at the situation that gave rise to the Civil War that I have experienced. The narrative flowed like a novel. There are vital insights for the modern American political millieux as well. After many years of fascination with and reflexion on the Civil War, I gained a number of new ways of sorting out the "then and now" realities of a still divided nation. Kudos to the narrator for his skillful presentation of intricate, historical information. Well done!

22 people found this helpful

A Mosiac

The author does an excellent job in focusing on persons who are bit players in most popular Civil War books. He writes about such people as Thomas Starr King, Jessie Fremont, Benjamin Butler, Elmer Elsworth, and James Garfield as a young man, and many others. By doing this, he is able to build up a very interesting snapshort of Northern opinion on the eve of the war and in its early months. He is also great at setting a scene through the use of small descriptive details.

He may not be for everyone, though. First, his is a very pro-Union perspective. He is openly contempuous of Southern views. The only prominent Confederate he profiles is Louis T. Wigfall, who appears to have been filled with equal parts liquor and bile. Second, he has the odd habit of making a sweeping pronunciamento from time to time, the decisiveness of which appears to be inversely related to the amount of evidence he produces for it. These include stating that Lincoln consciously tricked the South into attacking Sumter; (Perhaps a more nuanced assessment would have been better), and that if the North had had generals like Nathaniel Lyon and Frank Blair in the East, the rebellion would have been quashed much earlier (an absurdity.) Finally, if you want lots of Lincoln and details of battle (including First Bull Run), forget it. Lincoln is almost a bit player here, and Bull Run gets no detailed coverage.

In all, I would heartily recommend this book precisely because it is so different from the run-of-the-mill Civl War popular hstory.

42 people found this helpful

another unique perspective on the Civil War

Would you listen to 1861: The Civil War Awakening again? Why?

I would listen again. Goodheart does a terrific job showing what people actually thought & felt, mostly in the north, as developments built toward a Civil War most did not want or anticipate, and none felt would turn out as a 4 year bloodbath.

What did you like best about this story?

Usually we think about history, without much intellectual effort, as if the participants knew what was going to happen in their tomorrow, in their next year. And of course that is not the way things happen. Goodheart's strength is showing that.

8 people found this helpful

Excellent Play by Play of USA's Tumultuous 1861:

Adam Goodheart does an excellent job of making you feel like you are there, right beside the other participants, in this incredibly immense and polarized year of 1861 in the United States.

I could not be more impressed with the attention to detail, as Goodheart's ability to craft scenes allows the emotions of the moment to transfer to the reader some 150 year later. Literally, I got "goose-bumps" during certain exchanges between President Lincoln and his detractors. It could not be more amazing his foresight against the backdrop of history.

I highly recommend this book, and I am certain you will realize there is much you don't know about the events that led to the Civil War. In addition, I promise a change in perspective on both this era in history and the people involved.

I find this book is best at 2x speed.

8 people found this helpful

Original, detailed, fascinating

Wide-ranging history, using the first year of the war as a framework for a much larger narrative. There are many familiar names here (Lincoln and Douglas and Jefferson Davis, of course); but also many I hadn't heard before: for example, Lucy Bagby, a slave who escaped, was recaptured, and later liberated by the Union army; Thomas Starr King (a transcendentalist and anti-secession orator); and Asbury Harpending, a privateer and pro-Confederacy adventurer. Other people, familiar as names, become living personalities here: Jessie Benton Fremont, Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, Nathaniel Lyon, Franz Sigel, James Garfield. One notable incident, the burning of part of Hampton, is something I knew nothing about, despite having lived in Hampton for four years. A really interesting and original book.

15 people found this helpful