The American Civil War; A Military History

New York: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc, 2009. First Vintage Civil War Library Edition [stated], First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very Good. xvi, 396, [2] pages. Illustrations. Maps. This is one of the Vintage Civil War Library. Includes List of Maps and Introduction, as well as Notes, Bibliography, Acknowledgments, and Index. Chapters cover North and South divide; Will There Be a War?; Improvised Armies; Running the War; The Military Geography of the Civil War; The Life of the Soldier; Plans; McClellan Takes Command; The War in Middle America; Lee's war in the East, Grants's War in the West; Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; Vicksburg; Cutting the Chattanooga--Atlanta Link; The Overland Campaign and the Fall of Richmond; Breaking into the South; The Battle off Cherbourg and the Civil war at Sea; Black Soldiers; The Home Fronts; Walt Whitman and Wounds; Civil War Generalship; Civil War Battle; Could the South have Survived?; and The End of the War. In this long-awaited history, John Keegan shares his original and perceptive insights into the psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics of the American Civil War. Illuminated by Keegan's knowledge of military history, The American Civil War provides a fascinating look at how command and the slow evolution of strategic logic influenced the course of the war. It gives an intriguing account of how the scope of the conflict combined with American geography present a uniquely complex and challenging battle space. Incisive in its analysis, this is an indispensable account of America's greatest conflict. Keegan's achievement is to bring an international perspective. As well as looking back on European influences, he looks forward to how the Civil War changed European warfare. The greatest military historian of our time gives a peerless account of America's most bloody, wrenching, and eternally fascinating war. Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE FRSL (15 May 1934 - 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, writer and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, air, maritime, intelligence warfare and the psychology of battle. In 1960 Keegan took up a lectureship in military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which trains officers for the British Army. He remained there for 26 years, becoming a senior lecturer in military history during his tenure, during which he also held a visiting professorship at Princeton University and was Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar College. Leaving the academy in 1986, Keegan joined the Daily Telegraph as a defence correspondent and stayed with the paper as defence editor until his death. He also wrote for the American conservative National Review Online. In 1998 he wrote and presented the BBC's Reith Lectures, entitling them War in our World.