A Great Civil War

出版者:Indiana University Press

作者:Russell F. Weigley

页数:648

出版时间:2004-1-30

价格:GBP 20.99

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780253217066

具体描述

"It may be that Confederate nationalism died so abruptly and so completely because it was never a true nationalism, that the fatal split in the confederate psyche prevented the national spirit from ever flowering fully enough to nourish a resolve that would have persevered in the contest after all the romance was gone. All the more tragic was a war fought with so much bloodshed around a flag whose opponents did not really want to pull it down." "If the liberation of African Americans could have been achieved in no way except through war, then the Civil War calls for a rethinking of the attitude toward war that has become widespread, even predominant, in the United States since the Vietnam War: the belief that war is always futile, that its rewards never match its cost, that any conflict that is accepted at all must assuredly be briefly, immediately decisive and virtually without loss of American lives. Neither side would have gone to war in 1861 had there existed then the refusal to accept American risks of death or injury in battle that appears to prevail in the mid-1990s. Neither side would have gone to war had there existed the current insistence that America must never fight unless it is certain of victory beforehand." "Which does not imply that our generation is so much wiser or more civilised than the generation that initiated the Great War of 1861-1865 for the destiny of America. To balance the loss in war of over 400,000 largely white American lives against the gain of freedom for nearly 4 million slaves requires a higher than human capacity to weigh conflicting values. Still, the liberating of so many, and of their descendants, along with the preservation of the American experiment in democracy, may well appear to our rough human calculations as gains not falling short after all of justification for the terrible price of the Civil War." -- Russell F. Weigley A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the events which continue to dominate the American imagination and identity nearly 150 years after the war's end. Our Civil War. The Civil War. "A great Civil War," as Lincoln phrased it in the Gettysburg Address. In personal as well as historical terms, more even than the war for independence, the Civil War has been the defining experience of the American democracy. No one knows more about warfare, ancient and modern, than Russell Weigley. A lifelong student of both strategy and tactics, he also brings to his accounts a deep understanding of the importance of individuals from generals to captains to privates. He can put the reader on the battlefield as well as anyone who has ever written about war, and he does it countless times in A Great Civil War. From Fort Sumter to the early ill-organised clashes in the West and border states to the naval encounters in the East and on through the great and horrible battles whose names resound in American history--Shiloh, Corinth, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Antietam, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomattox--all the great battles and many lesser engagements are described and analysed. A brilliant narrator of battle action and historical events, Weigley is never content merely to tell a good story. Every student of war will find new insights and interpretations at the strategic and the tactical level. There are firm judgements throughout of the leaders on both sides of the conflict. A Great Civil War also analyses the politics of both sides in relationship to battlefield situations. Weigley is unique in his ability to put all of the pieces on the board at once the reader understands as never before how war and politics (and individuals) interacted to produce the infinitely complex story which is the Civil War. As with any major work, there are themes and subtexts, explicit and implicit: Both sides began the war with strategic and tactical concepts based on Napoleon which were already obsolete because of changes in technology--and both sides struggled throughout the war to develop new strategic and tactical procedures. The Civil War was great not only in the massiveness of the slaughter and destruction. It was, for all its horror, a war about values--democracy and the freeing of the slaves--that was worth the effort. The South, despite its powerful defence, was ultimately ambivalent about leaving the Union and gave up more easily than might have been expected. Finally, there is an intimacy, a sense of personal urgency, in Weigley's grand account. He is connected by blood as well as profession. Jacob Weigley, the author's great grandfather, visited Gettysburg soon after the battle and wrote about it to his brother Francis, who was serving with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry Francis later died in a Confederate prison camp. Then and now the Weigleys live in Pennsylvania, and the war and its lessons remain part of the family's living memory, as it is also the nation's.

用户评价

我必须承认，这本书的学术严谨性是毋庸置疑的，但最让我惊喜的是它在图像和文献引用上的丰富性。它远不止于文字的堆砌，而是通过大量精心挑选的地图、手绘插图，甚至是一些当时的书信原件扫描件，构建了一个多维度的阅读体验。这些视觉材料并非简单的点缀，而是与文字叙述紧密结合，互相印证，极大地增强了可信度和沉浸感。例如，书中关于某次围城战的描述，配上了当时双方绘制的防御工事示意图，瞬间就将抽象的军事术语具象化了。而且，作者的注释部分也极其详尽，如果你想追根溯源，了解某个观点或引文的出处，都能轻易找到可靠的线索。这种对细节的尊重，让这本书成为了一个极佳的研究参考资料，但同时，对于普通读者来说，它又因为这些直观的辅助材料而变得易于理解和亲近。它成功地架起了严肃学术研究和大众阅读之间的桥梁，这一点非常值得称赞。

这本书简直是历史爱好者的盛宴！我一翻开它，就被那种扑面而来的史诗感深深吸引住了。作者对那个特定时期的社会结构、政治角力，甚至到最基层士兵的日常生活，都有着近乎偏执的细致描摹。他没有满足于简单地罗列时间线和著名战役，而是深入挖掘了那些影响历史走向的微妙瞬间。比如，书中对当时报纸舆论的分析，简直是教科书级别的。那种通过不同地域、不同阶层发出的声音交织在一起，形成一股巨大的社会洪流，作者将其刻画得淋漓尽致。我尤其欣赏他对一些边缘人物命运的关注，那些在宏大叙事下被忽略的个体，他们的挣扎与抉择，被赋予了应有的重量和深度。阅读过程中，我仿佛能闻到硝烟味，感受到那种时代变革前夜特有的躁动与不安。即便是对这段历史已经非常熟悉的读者，也会从中发现大量新鲜的视角和被重新审视的论点。它不是一本轻松的读物，需要读者投入足够的时间和精力去品味那些复杂的权谋与人性的复杂性，但这份投入绝对物有所值，读完后，你对那个时代的理解将提升到一个全新的维度。

这本书给我的感觉，用一个词来形容，就是“立体”。它不是单向度地去叙述一个已知的历史进程，而是像一个熟练的雕塑家，从四面八方去雕琢那个时代的面貌。我欣赏作者对待历史人物的克制态度，他没有将他们神化，也没有一味地进行道德审判。相反，他将他们置于他们所处的时代背景之下，去分析他们的选择是如何被当时的政治气候、个人性格以及不可抗拒的外部力量所塑造的。读到关键人物的内心挣扎时，我常常会停下来思考，如果是我在那种压力下，是否会做出同样的选择？这种共情与反思，正是优秀历史著作的魅力所在。此外，这本书在对“失败”的解读上也独树一帜，它不把战败或政治运动的失败视为终点，而是视为新阶段的开端，展示了如何从惨痛的教训中汲取营养，从而推动社会向更深层次的变革迈进。整体而言，这是一部充满洞察力、兼具广度与深度的力作，能让人在合上书本后，依然久久回味那个波澜壮阔的年代。

说实话，刚开始看这本书的时候，我还有点担心它会变成一本枯燥的学术论文集，但很快我就发现我完全想多了。它的叙事手法非常高明，充满了文学色彩，读起来一点也不费劲，反而有种追悬疑小说的快感。作者似乎很擅长在关键时刻设置悬念，让你忍不住想知道接下来会发生什么，尽管我们都知道历史的走向，但那种对“如何到达”的追寻，却是引人入胜的。举个例子，书中对于某次关键军事调动的描写，不是简单地描述部队的移动，而是将前线指挥官的心理博弈、后方物资调配的困境，以及情报传递中的层层失误，编织成一个紧张的叙事网。更绝的是，它探讨了技术进步对战争形态的影响，那些新式武器的登场，如何瞬间颠覆了既有的战术思想，这种前瞻性的分析，即使放在今天看也极具现实意义。整本书的节奏掌握得恰到好处，既有高潮迭起的战争场面，也有平静下来后对哲学思辨的深入探讨，文笔流畅自然，如同高山流水，让人沉醉其中，完全忘记了手中的书本。

这本书给我最大的震撼在于其对“代价”的探讨。它毫不留情地揭示了任何宏大变革背后所必须付出的沉重人性代价。作者的笔触是冰冷的、客观的，却因此显得更加有力。他没有试图去美化任何一方的动机或行为，而是赤裸裸地展示了理想与现实之间的巨大鸿沟。在阅读那些关于战后重建、关于政治清算的部分时，我感到一种深深的无力感。那种胜利者的傲慢与失败者的屈辱，在作者冷静的叙述下，没有丝毫的偏袒，只是将事实呈现在你面前，让你自己去判断是非功过。特别是书中关于经济政策如何影响了社会阶层的固化与流动的一章，分析得极其透彻，揭示了看似坚不可摧的社会结构是如何在内部腐蚀中走向崩溃的。这本书不仅仅是在讲述一个历史事件，它更像是在进行一次深刻的社会诊断，探讨权力、资源和民众之间的永恒矛盾。它迫使你跳出简单的“好人”与“坏人”的二元对立，去理解历史的复杂性和灰度。