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America Goes to War: The Civil War and Its Meaning in American Culture By Bruce Catton (Author) Our Price $ 14.04   Retail Value $ 15.95   You Save $ 1.91  (12%)   Item Number 93669   Buy New Item Quantity: 1              2              3 ABOUT TRUST ONLINE

	A Taste of Catton  Oct 26, 2007
Bruce Catton's book is a collection of the lectures he delivered in 1958 at Wesleyan University. They discuss some of the ideas in his earlier books and suggest ways to explore incompletely answered questions such as how was the war approached, how was it fought, and how was the legacy of the North's victory and the South's defeat handled? His seven chapters discuss from a northern viewpoint salient aspects of the war beginning with his argument that the war was the first modern war due to its use of technology and tactics. Perhaps more importantly, he finds that the attitudes on both sides could be described as "total war" since complete victory was sought. Destruction of the ability to wage war became a goal as reflected by Sherman and Sheridan. Destruction of property evolved, according to Catton, into emancipation since that type of property was easily removed and useful in the North's war efforts. Catton reflects his northern biases in this chapter by, among other things, noting that some northern soldiers in the South realized that blacks were generally friends who could be counted on for help. He finds that emancipation effectively destroyed the South and changed the whole country since slavery was such an ingrained aspect of the fabric of the United States. Catton blames slavery as the primary cause of the war arguing that politicians finally could no longer find compromises. In the last chapter, "The Heritage of Victory," he presents the issue of racism and how emancipation with little effective follow up by the victors led to blacks becoming and remaining second-class citizens. Catton never tries to hide his northern perspective but he does discuss southern viewpoints and does not ignore northern failings. His narrative, nonacademic approach makes for entertaining reading but footnotes and a bibliography would help a reader wishing to do further research. Its 116 pages of text are well worth the short amount of time it takes to read this book and digest his ideas.

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