The American Civil War, And the War's of the Industrial Revolution (Cassell's History Of Warfare) - Hardcover

Holden Reid, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0304352306 ISBN 13: 9780304352302

Publisher: Cassell, 1999

Synopsis

The Civil War was the bloodiest war in America's history, comprising 149 general engagements of importance and 2200 skirmishes. The author, a leading expert on the subject, narrates the history of the war and also describes how such factors as generalship, staff work, organisation, intelligence and logistics affect the shape and decisions of the battlefield. He looks closely at the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing sides - the North's industrial strength and the South's material shortages, for example - and the effect of new weapons on tactics. The author also covers the other crucial wars of the nineteenth century, the Crimean War and Prussia's wars with Austria and France.

About this title

Review:

If you're looking for an event that symbolises what both unites and divides Britain and the US, search no further than the Second World War. Britain and the US both fought on the same side, but as far as the British are concerned the war started in 1939 and was to all intents and purposes over in May 1945 with the fall of Berlin. The Americans see things a little differently. They reckon it started in 1941 with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and ended in August 1945 with the atomic explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This, of course, is a little simplistic. The Americans did play a major part in the European War from D-Day onward, though not perhaps as much as films like Saving Private Ryan might suggest. Watching Steven Spielberg's epic you'd be hard pushed to know there was a single Brit in Normandy in 1944. And the Brits were involved in the Far East; first with the fall of Singapore, then with the Chindit campaign in Burma. No one should ignore, either, the suffering of the British POWs in the Japanese labour camps. Yet the fact remains that for most Eurocentric Brits, the war in the Far East is largely a forgotten war. We remember the odd vivid image--Pearl Harbour, the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima and the mushroom clouds over Japan--but that is just about it. So H.P. Willmott's book, part of Cassell' s excellent History of Warfare series, comes as a salutary jolt to our conscience. We may have lived through hell in Europe, but some of the nastiest, most brutal hand-to-hand fighting was taking place nearly 10,000 miles away.

As with the other books in this series, Willmott conjures an Alice in Wonderland effect; there is far more in here than you would imagine the space allowed. Detailed maps, period photos, helpful chronologies are all included, along with a substantial political and military overview. Above all, what you get is context. We don't wade in with Pearl Harbour; instead we start with Japan's imperialistic expansionist policies of the 1920s and 30s with its ongoing secret war with China from which Pearl Harbour became a logical opportunistic extension. And Japan almost got away with it. For a year they cleaned up everything that stood in their way and by 1942 were in possession of the East Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines. But then the fight back began; first at the Midway Islands and then slowly, slowly through the Solomon Islands and the Philippines, until it became a battle for Japan itself. If you're looking for quibbles, then Willmott misses a trick or two on the involvement of the Japanese Imperial Family in the war effort; everything the generals did had the blessing of Hirohito. But all in all, this is a robust and thoughtful book. --John Crace

Book Description:

This single volume includes accounts of the bloodiest war in America's history, as well as the Crimean War and Prussia's wars with Austria and France

About this edition

• Publisher: Cassell
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0304352306
• ISBN 13: 9780304352302
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224