DFYAA

The American Civil War: A Military History by John Keegan.
One word, Disappointed!!
This book did not get very good reviews and I should have paid attention to them and passed on it. John Keegan did not live up to his reputation as an excellent military historian with his work here. I felt that with the materials available to me in my modest library and the local university library I could have written as good a book on the topic as this one.
There were too many mistakes in the book. The mistakes were in the details such as the age of Winfield Scott when the war started, he was 75 not 85. I did not keep a list but errors like this appeared throughout the book. If you have any knowledge of the topic these mistakes are very irritating and damaging to the credibility of the author. The battle narratives were cursory and left out many facts I had read elsewhere that I felt should have been included. The one thing I did like was the author's frequent use of Grant's memoirs as one of his sources. I have always felt this was an excellent book that contained a wealth of unbiased information.
The analysis was very thin. Keegan concludes that the South could not have won the war because of its lack of resources. This is not a new idea. He also concludes that socialism never developed in the United States because of the experiences of the men who fought the war. I don't see this as a significant issue and I would disagree with the author. The author analogizes the effect of the Civil War and WWI on the participants and attributes some characteristics of the Gilded Age to the violence experienced by the soldiers of the Civil War.
These insights are not sufficient to justify the time, trouble of reading the book not to mention the cost. I simply cannot recommend this book. If you want to read a one volume history of the era try Battle Cry of Freedom. It is well written and much more informative. ( )