Civil War Bike Tour Recommended Reading List

'The Civil War'  PBS Video, DVD 2004 (VHS 1997) by Ken Burns

'The Civil War, An Illustrated History' Geoffrey C Ward, Ric Burns, Burns, Ken (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990)

'The Battle Cry of Freedom, The Civil War Era' James M McPherson  The Illustrated  version is still available in some libraries.  An exceptional one volume work, available as a paperback, with fewer illustrations.  It gives a particularly valuable introduction to the years from the Constitution to the Civil War and the recurrent disputes over the extension of slavery.

'Grant Moves South 1861-1863' Bruce Catton, (copyright 1960 and Grant Takes Command 1863- 1865, copyright 1968). These volumes offer an enormously detailed and satisfying history of the foibles and strengths of the remarkable general, and are preferable to his excellent 1953 trilogy on The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road and A Stillness at Appomattox.

'A Team of Rivals, the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'  Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner is detailed and good for those who want a detailed look at Lincoln as leader and politician.

'1861 The Civil War Awakening' Adam Goodheart.  A really interesting look at the period leading up to the election and through Lincoln’s important July 4^th speech of 1861.  In particular, it provides great detail on the hardening of attitudes North and South which led up to the War, in which the number of  American deaths was not exceeded in all our other wars combined until near the end of the Vietnam War.

Wikipedia has an enormous amount of information on the Civil War and detailed descriptions of the major battles and casualties therein.

The New York Times is following the present 150^th anniversary of the start of the civil war with frequent comments from its’ contemporaneous coverage of the war (available in a book as well) and comments by historians on events 150 years earlier by date.  For subscribers at the New York Times web site search for American Civil War (1861-1865)

Atlas of the Civil War: A Complete Guide to the Tactics and Terrain of Battle (National Geographic) by Stephen Hyslop, Neil Kagan, and Harris Andrews (Oct 20, 2009)   Excellent maps from then and updated with many recent redrawn maps.

'A World on Fire, An Epic History of Two Nations Divided' Amanda Foreman. Excellent coverage of the diplomatic side of the war and the pros and cons of European nations intervening on behalf of the South – many unemployed in the Cotton Mills of England – or the North as England had outlawed and enforced prohibitions on slave trading early in the 19^th century.

Happy Reading!