1861: The Civil War Awakening
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 461 ratings
Price: 26.21
Last update: 08-27-2024
About this item
As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began.
1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents' faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom.
The book introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes - among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer's wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Adam Goodheart takes us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at this moment of ultimate crisis and decision.
Top reviews from the United States
floyd long5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Well Written
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2011
This is a good book that captures your attention early and keeps it through the book. The author writes in a style that keeps the book moving along at a good pace. The author has also done a really good job of backing up his arguments with a good biblography. He brings up several new theories as to why the Civil War happened and he seems to do a really good job of capturing the mood of the country at that time in US History. In fact the book is unique in not really discussing the generals and why they did this or that during the war, but in explaining some of their actions in a prespective of the time (and culture) they lived in. Example Fort Sumpter and Colonel Andersons Actions. The book spends more time on the culture and mood of the country in 1861 and the years that lead up to the Civil War. This gives you a much better understanding of the people of America and how they were affected and what they were actually thinking at that time in US History. If you are a history buff this would be a good read. I recommend it to those on both sides of the cause. It could be enlightening.
Jono Walker5.0 out of 5 stars
History on a Human Scale
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2012
1861 provides a truly unique take on the Civil War. Instead of focusing on the high profile military and government actions in the lead-up and early months of the war like so many other books have done, it draws you into the mindset of a whole host of interesting key players. By telling us about people ranging from center stage politicians to more ordinary citizens who you probably never heard much about but who nonetheless played important roles in shaping public attitudes behind the scenes, Goodheart unravels the story of how after four score and five years of peaceful coexistence the people of the North and the South could no longer live with their uneasy compromise over the issue of slavery. He brings to light what was happening in the popular culture and in so doing he brings to life the tumultuous events of the times. He helps us understand what seems to our contemporary American brains as an utter impossibility: how all the shouting could turn to shooting and how things could so quickly disintegrate into an all-out total war with an utterly appalling amount of bloodshed.
We learn for example, about Elmer Ellsworth, a young man from a little town in upstate New York and later Chicago. In much the same way boys in later generations would get hooked on the characters in the Star Wars movies, the young Ellsworth became enthralled with the Zouaves, an elite military regiment from France. He was taken not only by their prodigious exploits on the battlefields of northern Africa, but by their dashing uniforms. Pouring over his collection of books and Zouave training manuals Ellsworth became a self-taught expert. In the late 1850's he brought his obsession to life by recruiting and equipping his own "regiment" made up of athletic young men whom he drilled to perfection in Chicago's public parks. Ellsworth's Zouaves got so impressive and flashy he took them on tour across the country where with the help of the emerging new technologies of photography and the telegraph wire, his travelling precision drill team became an overnight sensation and photogenic Ellsworth became America's first media-styled superstar.
Once Fort Sumter fell and war was declared, President Lincoln tapped Ellsworth's celebrity power and asked him to raise a real regiment of elite soldiers. Ellsworth jumped at the opportunity and charged off to New York City where he recruited fit and trim men from the ranks of the fire fighting companies that dotted the city and turned them into the 11th New York Infantry. After a few months of intense training, off to Washington they gaily marched resplendent in their flowing red pantaloons and exotic tassle-topped fezzes to show those nasty "Secesh" troublemakers just what was what. Needless to say, things didn't go quite as planned for Ellsworth's Zouaves, and thanks to Goodheart's wonderful writing style, we feel in our gut how the unexpected death of a dashing young national hero could so suddenly gird the nation for a war that started out with a feel more like a boy's game of capture the flag but ended up becoming a real man-sized bloodbath.
Goodheart awakens his readers to much more than the fate and impact of Elmer Ellsworth. We learn about the young James Garfield (later to become President), who as a professor at Hiram College in Ohio dazzled his students in the 1850's with talk about their transcendent potential and thus opening their minds to the possibility of America's more perfect union. We cross the Rockies to the newly minted state of California where Jessie Fremónt, the wife of the great Pathfinder, John C. Fremónt, assembled an influential crowd of other like-minded intellectuals who advocated for keeping California in the Union. We meet the German immigrant community in St. Louis that was instrumental in keeping Missouri neutral, and we get re-acquainted with Union General Benjamin Butler who early in the war came up with a dicey legal dodge around the Fugitive Slave Act that helped pry open the door to the enlistment of blacks into the U.S. army and ultimately to their emancipation. We learn about everything from how the sudden departure of Southern congressmen paved the way to completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, to how men in those days were, ironically enough, much more open about expressing their brotherly love for one another, and we find out why so many of them grew beards!
Even if you think you've read all the books about the Civil War you think you can stand, 1861 gives you a whole new set of insights and information to ponder. My only slight criticism is that the book is light on perspectives from the South. I'm sure there were people speaking out against slavery on that side of the Mason Dixon line, but we don't hear their voices. Nonetheless, this is a great history told at the human level, where history is truly carried out. It helps you to understand our most tumultuous period of our nation's still relatively young life and draws important parallels to our own gridlocked times. I strongly recommend you read it.
We learn for example, about Elmer Ellsworth, a young man from a little town in upstate New York and later Chicago. In much the same way boys in later generations would get hooked on the characters in the Star Wars movies, the young Ellsworth became enthralled with the Zouaves, an elite military regiment from France. He was taken not only by their prodigious exploits on the battlefields of northern Africa, but by their dashing uniforms. Pouring over his collection of books and Zouave training manuals Ellsworth became a self-taught expert. In the late 1850's he brought his obsession to life by recruiting and equipping his own "regiment" made up of athletic young men whom he drilled to perfection in Chicago's public parks. Ellsworth's Zouaves got so impressive and flashy he took them on tour across the country where with the help of the emerging new technologies of photography and the telegraph wire, his travelling precision drill team became an overnight sensation and photogenic Ellsworth became America's first media-styled superstar.
Once Fort Sumter fell and war was declared, President Lincoln tapped Ellsworth's celebrity power and asked him to raise a real regiment of elite soldiers. Ellsworth jumped at the opportunity and charged off to New York City where he recruited fit and trim men from the ranks of the fire fighting companies that dotted the city and turned them into the 11th New York Infantry. After a few months of intense training, off to Washington they gaily marched resplendent in their flowing red pantaloons and exotic tassle-topped fezzes to show those nasty "Secesh" troublemakers just what was what. Needless to say, things didn't go quite as planned for Ellsworth's Zouaves, and thanks to Goodheart's wonderful writing style, we feel in our gut how the unexpected death of a dashing young national hero could so suddenly gird the nation for a war that started out with a feel more like a boy's game of capture the flag but ended up becoming a real man-sized bloodbath.
Goodheart awakens his readers to much more than the fate and impact of Elmer Ellsworth. We learn about the young James Garfield (later to become President), who as a professor at Hiram College in Ohio dazzled his students in the 1850's with talk about their transcendent potential and thus opening their minds to the possibility of America's more perfect union. We cross the Rockies to the newly minted state of California where Jessie Fremónt, the wife of the great Pathfinder, John C. Fremónt, assembled an influential crowd of other like-minded intellectuals who advocated for keeping California in the Union. We meet the German immigrant community in St. Louis that was instrumental in keeping Missouri neutral, and we get re-acquainted with Union General Benjamin Butler who early in the war came up with a dicey legal dodge around the Fugitive Slave Act that helped pry open the door to the enlistment of blacks into the U.S. army and ultimately to their emancipation. We learn about everything from how the sudden departure of Southern congressmen paved the way to completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, to how men in those days were, ironically enough, much more open about expressing their brotherly love for one another, and we find out why so many of them grew beards!
Even if you think you've read all the books about the Civil War you think you can stand, 1861 gives you a whole new set of insights and information to ponder. My only slight criticism is that the book is light on perspectives from the South. I'm sure there were people speaking out against slavery on that side of the Mason Dixon line, but we don't hear their voices. Nonetheless, this is a great history told at the human level, where history is truly carried out. It helps you to understand our most tumultuous period of our nation's still relatively young life and draws important parallels to our own gridlocked times. I strongly recommend you read it.
Anne Mills4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable and Enlightening: Brings Out the Centrality of Slavery
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2013
Fascinating book on the events of the earliest phase of the Civil War (the last few months before it began, and the first few months thereafter) which deserves the critical praise that's been heaped upon it. It takes an unusual slant on Civil War history, focusing on popular movements and popular heroes of the day, not on the usual parade of generals and battles. This doesn't preclude a lot of attention to key figures, most notably Abraham Lincoln, whose development in the months in question is central to the book. (Goodheart also focusses on other lesser know actors on the Civil War stage whose deeds and words make fascinating reading -- particularly the irrepressible Ben Butler, a.k.a "Beast".)
The book is vividly written, full of color and emotion, in strong contrast to many other valuable works of history. But it is also meticulously footnoted: I'm not a scholar, but it seems eminently scholarly to me. It also has a compelling narrative drive. In his first chapter, the author says that "I wanted to learn more about how Americans -- both ordinary citizens and national leaders -- experienced and responded to a moment of sudden crisis and change as it unfolded". He communicates those experiences and responses as they happened, not as they look through the backward looking lens of history. But the reader does know what will happen -- a tension that produces narrative drive.
I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I learned a lot from it. Most important, it underlined for me the fact that the war really was about slavery, on both sides of the battlefronts. In the North, that became clearer as the war raged on, but the roots of an anti-slavery commitment were there in 1861, as Goodheart makes clear. As we enter the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, however, it's important to remember what happened after it ended, as well as how it began. A sad counterpoint to "1861" is provided by Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption", which shows how the whites took back power in Mississippi in 1875, an event which was shortly repeated across the South. The war did end slavery, but the other two grand promises that it achieved -- 14th and 15th amendments -- were still unfulfilled 100 years after the War ended. Indeed, many would question whether or not they have been fulfilled today.
The book is vividly written, full of color and emotion, in strong contrast to many other valuable works of history. But it is also meticulously footnoted: I'm not a scholar, but it seems eminently scholarly to me. It also has a compelling narrative drive. In his first chapter, the author says that "I wanted to learn more about how Americans -- both ordinary citizens and national leaders -- experienced and responded to a moment of sudden crisis and change as it unfolded". He communicates those experiences and responses as they happened, not as they look through the backward looking lens of history. But the reader does know what will happen -- a tension that produces narrative drive.
I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I learned a lot from it. Most important, it underlined for me the fact that the war really was about slavery, on both sides of the battlefronts. In the North, that became clearer as the war raged on, but the roots of an anti-slavery commitment were there in 1861, as Goodheart makes clear. As we enter the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, however, it's important to remember what happened after it ended, as well as how it began. A sad counterpoint to "1861" is provided by Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption", which shows how the whites took back power in Mississippi in 1875, an event which was shortly repeated across the South. The war did end slavery, but the other two grand promises that it achieved -- 14th and 15th amendments -- were still unfulfilled 100 years after the War ended. Indeed, many would question whether or not they have been fulfilled today.
JTAlex5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read for Every Civil War Enthusiast
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2022
So much focus has been on the individual battles of America's Civil War that the drama of its unfolding has often been overlooked. Adam Goodheart offers insight into the drama of the pre-war dichotomy between the north and south, which escalated into over a half-million American deaths. In addition, the author shows the human side of Lincoln with his fears and struggles during the attack on Ft. Sumter. After a period of deep depression, Lincoln finds his strength.
I recommend 1861. It's a great read and reveals a lot about human nature during emotionally driven times.
I recommend 1861. It's a great read and reveals a lot about human nature during emotionally driven times.