This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War

Contemporary Review, Spring, 2008

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War. James M. McPherson. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]16.99. xii 260 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-531366-6. Prof. McPherson takes another look, as historians are wont to do, at the War Between the States. He sets out to answer various questions: why did war come; what were the aims and strategies of each nation involved; how good was the leadership (as is the established custom, Lincoln comes out top of the poll); what was the impact of the war on the people involved; how did later generations remember and commemorate the Confederacy's failure to establish its independence.

Of the sixteen chapters, all but three have appeared in print in various forms over the years. While there is not a great deal of new insight here the book does give readers a new opportunity to see Prof. McPherson's works. (J.S.D.)