The Civil War

Children's Literature - Greg M. Romaneck

The difficulty in writing a concise, single-volume history of a topic such as the Civil War is that the scope of the endeavor can lead to a watered down end product. In this volume author Bob Rees attempts such a project and ends up producing a fine look back at many aspects of the American Civil War. In Living Through the Civil War readers are offered a concise overview of the major political and military events that made up this pivotal era in American history. Throughout this illustrated book the author offers not only insights into the chronology of the conflict but also human interest aspects as well. While the pages dedicated to re-telling the stories of battles such as Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Antietam are extremely short, Rees offers some wonderful insights via primary source materials into the lives of common soldiers. Periodic spotlights on specific topics such as women in the war, camp life, and the role of African-American troops are all reinforced by extensive quotations from firsthand accounts. In fact, the most stirring pages include the words of soldiers and civilians who contributed to the course of events during the war. Additionally, Rees provides readers a useful listing of resources including books, DVDs, websites, and potential Google searches. This combination of taut narrative, primary source information, and resource options makes this a worthwhile purchase. Reviewer: Greg M. Romaneck