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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I grew up in Pennsylvania, just outside Gettysburg, but have lived in Charleston, SC for over 10 years now and in SC for over 20. I found the author's bias toward southerners - their attitudes toward Yankees (yes, it's still a thing), their idea of honor, their society structure, etc. - all very accurate and very obviously telling. The author made no qualms of making his belief that the Civil War was exclusively based on the protection of slavery well known in the book. However, in Charleston the belief is (still) that they were fighting for State's rights and to protect their way of life, not necessarily to protect their right to own slaves. Larson truly hit the nail on the head with the dichotomy of the war's driving force and couldn't have more accurately captured the attitudes of those times and still now.
Fort Sumter was vividly described and easily allowed readers to visualize the site, even for those who have never been here in person. My only negative for the book is that I felt some of the side stories could have been minimized just to keep the focus on the war. Ms. Mary Chestnut's storyline in particular I didn't feel contributed much to the story of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War, but would be an excellent basis for any number of spin-off stories about life in that era and/or in Charleston.
If I could give this book a 4.5 out of 5, I would. Larson's research was impressive and obviously thorough. My only point deduction comes from the length that I think could have been cleaned up a little bit. Otherwise, this is a very worthy investment of time for history lovers!
Fort Sumter was vividly described and easily allowed readers to visualize the site, even for those who have never been here in person. My only negative for the book is that I felt some of the side stories could have been minimized just to keep the focus on the war. Ms. Mary Chestnut's storyline in particular I didn't feel contributed much to the story of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War, but would be an excellent basis for any number of spin-off stories about life in that era and/or in Charleston.
If I could give this book a 4.5 out of 5, I would. Larson's research was impressive and obviously thorough. My only point deduction comes from the length that I think could have been cleaned up a little bit. Otherwise, this is a very worthy investment of time for history lovers!
