The Civil War And The Wars Of The Nineteenth Century (Smithsonian History Of Warfare) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
The Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history and a defining moment of the nineteenth century. In this concise and authoritative volume, Brian Holden Reid -- a leading expert on the subject -- reveals how industrialization and emerging methods of mass production gave birth to a new age of warfare, most dramatically represented in the unprecedented destruction and mass casualties of the American Civil War. Detailed, chronological history of the strategic and operational dimensions of both the Northern and Southern campaigns Strengths and weaknesses of the opposing sides Fresh perspectives on the war's global context Culmination of the war, peace negotiations, and their ramifications for the future
Series: Smithsonian History of Warfare
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 31, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060851201
ISBN-13: 978-0060851200
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 7.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #122,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #46 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Military History #424 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War #1241 in Books > History > Military > United States
Brian Holden Reid's goal in this book, as he states in the introduction, is to place the Civil War in context with two other major conflicts of the mid-19th century, the Crimean War and the wars of German unification. Contrary to many traditional accounts of the warfare of the era, he sees the three as reflecting the evolution of large-scale industrialized warfare during those decades, with the different struggles nevertheless demonstrating commonalities in the impact of new technologies and the changing scale of war.This is evident beginning with the Crimean War. Fought in the shadow of the Napoleonic wars (the British commander had been Wellington's secretary), Reid nonetheless demonstrates, in a very British-centric account, that the expedition to the Crimea would have been impossible without the steam-powered ships which sustained the forces. Yet while he challenges the notion of the British military as being "a museum piece", he does note that the reforms introduced hardly addressed the challenges of the new warfare that commanders like Lord Raglan faced.Similar limitations emerged at the command level during the Civil War. Reid's analysis of the conflict dominates the book, taking up three of its five chapters. His analysis if primarily operational and strategic, and it reveals how unready - and in many cases, unadaptable - commanders on both sides were to the new scale of warfare. Grant emerges as the dominant commander, Reid argues, not because of his ability as a field commander (which he sees as inferior to Lee's), but because of his grasp of "what was important in the higher level of the conduct of war.
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