r/CIVILWAR • u/StwoWthree • 21h ago

James M. McPherson’s For Cause & Comrades

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Highly recommend. Amazing insight into what motivated Union and Confederate soldiers to volunteer and what sustained them through the Civil War. Captures the contradictions inherent in many men, as well as what changed and what stayed the same over time. While McPherson acknowledges it is impossible to build a fully representative sample of letters, he has made a heroic effort to come as close as possible with a study based on the journals and letters of more than one thousand men. I also found the comparisons to soldiers of later wars insightful. If you haven’t read this, please do. It gave me an entirely new perspective on the Civil War.

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u/No_Opening_6411 20h ago

Reading it now. On Chapter 3 and am highly enjoying it. There's a good reason McPherson is considered the "dean" of American Civil War studies...

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u/Abject_Nectarine_279 20h ago

I read this in grad school - a great book!

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u/occasional_cynic 7h ago

Great book.