The American Civil War

A Military History

By: John Keegan

Narrated by: Robin Sachs

For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name.

Now Keegan examines these and other puzzles with a peerless understanding of warfare, uncovering dimensions of the conflict that have eluded earlier historiography.While offering original and perceptive insights into psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics, Keegan reveals the war’s hidden shape—a consequence of leadership, the evolution of strategic logic, and, above all, geography, the Rosetta Stone of his legendary decipherments of all great battles. The American topography, Keegan argues, presented a battle space of complexity and challenges virtually unmatched before or since. Out of a succession of mythic but chaotic engagements, he weaves an irresistible narrative illuminated with comparisons to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and other conflicts. The American Civil War is sure to be hailed as a definitive account of its eternally fascinating subject.

©2009 John Keegan (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Keegan excels at explaining the events and circumstances leading up to the Civil War, and explores how it might not have happened. He depicts with great clarity the haphazard nature in which both governments and armies entered the war….This British historian has thereby nailed the American psyche’s captivation with its Civil War.” -James T. Course, Times Higher Education

“Written in crisp prose [with] a confident, distinctive voice…insightful [and] amusing….On matters of grand strategy Keegan is at his best. He comprehends the Civil War as a whole, as a war won or lost in the vast western theater, and one in which the winners were those few generals, along with Abraham Lincoln, who developed a ‘geostrategic appreciation,’ a national rather than local understanding, of the conflict….Keegan’s own geographic range inspires comparative insights that will prod….Keegan’s exploration of how and why the war was fought the way it was fought leaves us much to ponder.” David W. Blight, Slate

“An impressive body of ideas for specialists and general readers alike to ponder.” -Dennis Showalter, American History Magazine

An amazing analysis of our Civil War from outside!

A dedicated student of the Civil War, I was fascinated & intrigued by Keegan's different view of the many events I've read & studied... hearing a different set of questions & discussions about a "known event" was amazing... yes, I listened to it 3 times in a row to scratch my head & research to points he discusses & I overlooked.. Wish I found it sooner!!

Outstanding in every sense!

Where does The American Civil War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

"The American Civil War" is among the best audiobooks I have ever experienced. The clarity of analysis of civil war leaders, soldiers, and circumstances is superb. The story is intensely interesting and engaging, and the delivery (voice) is extremely well-suited to a historical work.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The American Civil War?

The book is packed with memorable moments. For example, there is an amazing description of Civil War sea battles, including the first sinking of an enemy ship by a submarine (on the part of the Confederacy)! I was also impacted by the description of trenching by soldiers and the fact that the men of both sides adopted this practice without being ordered to. And I will never forget the description of writer Walt Whitman's visitation of the wounded in hospitals, which inspired Whitman's later writing.

Any additional comments?

The greatest thing about this book is the way the author explains so much *background*, not just the facts. For example, he tells us about leaders' character and the *reasons* for their decisions, not just what they did. And the information is provided in a way that doesn't just inform, it entertains. I will be listening to this again soon.

Outstanding Civil War History

John Keegan does a masterful job of covering the United States Civil War from both the military and political perspectives.

Outstanding!!

Keegan is a brilliant war historian, and his take on the military history of the American CW is filled with fascinating insights. He is especially strong in his emphasis on how landscape profoundly affected the various campaigns. The narrator is excellent too. Somehow the fact that both author and narrator are Brits gives a freshness to the account --looking at the American conflict from a POV across the pond, as it were.

A must-have for your Civil War collection

What did you love best about The American Civil War?

This is well written and informative, and a great addition to your Shelby Foote narrative. I was OK with the accented narrator mis-pronouncing some American locations. If you are interested in being taught about the Civil War, this is a very good book.

Great military history, weak on the causes of the war

This was the first nonfiction book I ever read that wasn’t for a school assignment. I read it not long after it first came out in 2009, and I wanted to revisit it to see if my perspective on it had changed. As a single volume narrative on the military story of the war it’s still excellent. It loses a star for it’s less than stellar overview of some of the causes of the war. I feel like Keegan was at least indirectly influenced by the lost cause myth here and at times it made me cringe.

Great book, to be taken with a grain of salt

John Keegan is a great historian, and this work is proof of that. It is well-detailed but not to a point of being an exhausting experience to the reader. Keegan fleshes out the characters, reflecting on their motivations and providing enough background to help the reader understand why some History-changing decisions were made.
This, however, is also Keegan’s weak point, as he passes judgement on these same characters, getting very close to stereotyping them. In other words, Keegan does not distance himself from the events he tells, but does not have enough room in his book, or patience, to properly characterize his characters and motivations, and eventually comes up as a partial judge, mixing historical facts with his opinions.
Overall a great book about this terrible conflict, which revisits so many important questions not commonly asked by most.
Highly recommend it.

pronunciations of towns and rivers were better

it is sometimes confusing to listen to a book of local names are mispronounced. this reader does better than some.

Best Compendium by the Best Military Historian

Loved it indeed almost lived it too. After 4 years reading everything I could lay my hands on the American Civil War it just trumps everything.

A Novel Approach (As Opposed to Novelistic)

I had to listen to this two or three times with half an ear before I appreciated Keegan's cunning arrangement of the story. It is not a straight narrative, does not compete directly with the 119-course meals of Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton. It does not arrange the story in a linear timeline like a choo-choo train (THIS happened and then THIS happened...). No, it's done in the style of a digressive essay, like a long book review. Keegan spends most of the first half dilating upon the topics that most interest him: 19th Century American culture in general, Southern civilization vs Northern, the variances in technological development, the astounding spottiness of topographical knowledge (basically, maps that were poor or nonexistent), the prosperity and ease of the old-stock middle class, and in general how strange and novel American civilization appeared to those from the Old World.

Perhaps only an English military historian could handle this with the detachment that Keegan shows. This is not to say he shows no biases at all; he definitely faults the South for being technologically deficient and maybe culturally backward; and he thinks the world of Abraham Lincoln. But this is just a function of using a book-review idiom, in which one accepts the conventional outlook overall, while reserving creative insight for one's one narrow and favorite specialties. Thus when discussing strategy in the many theaters of war, Keegan comes back again and again to his own pet methodologies, analyzing the problems of managing a war over a vast terrain that no one comprehended very well, and comparing the topographical problems of waging battles in Tidewater Virginia versus the campaigns in the trans-Appalachian West. Again and again it's mainly an issue of good maps and efficient geopolitical outlook, much as in the First World War.

The performance is pretty good. The mispronunciations of place names (mainly "Po-to-mack" for Potomac) is amusing and forgivable, given the British actor during the narration.