A Pithy, Insightful Look at America's Civil War

Whenever I consider the tsunami of books on the American Civil War, a disquieting image pops into my mind: a vision of the Tigris after the Mongols leveled Baghdad, when they butchered citizens and tossed the volumes of the city’s famed library into the river. Legend has it that its waters ran red with blood and black with dissolved ink for days and days.

My association is sparked by the fact that the carnage of America’s murderous, fascinating war has provoked endless literary examinations. So much blood. So much ink. According to the Wikipedia Bibliography of the American Civil War, over 60,000 books have been written about the conflict. Yearly, hundreds more elbow their way onto the shelves like tardy commuters cramming into a packed subway car.

You know Jeremy Black. He is the astonishingly prolific British historian (180 books as sole author!!!). Now he has weighed in on a very well-trodden topic. Mind you, this is his very first complete book on the subject. Can he bring us anything new? Veteran readers steeped in the arcana of the “War Between the States,” or even an armchair dabbler like me, might have their doubts.

I am happy to say, however, that he pulls it off . . . in a crisp 257 pages, at that!

In fact, I wish I’d had the time-warp opportunity to encounter his 2025 work right after, aeons ago, I’d read my first few general histories, which had covered the overall scope of the conflict and its military dimensions. Prof. Black refocuses the usual domestic lens on the conflict, allowing for a broader, international viewpoint. By this, I refer to the author’s exceptional breadth of knowledge in global warfare, politics, economics, and technology that he brings to bear on the topic. His expansive scope allows for some real surprises. For instance, I never expected to see mention of the 1847 struggles of the Swiss Federation in any book on this subject!

I will let Prof. Black himself explain the rationale of his emphasis: “Yet, in the war’s context, course, and consequences . . . the international dimension was crucial, just as it was in the War of Independence of 1775-83.” In that struggle, for example, imperial French intervention was decisive; in 1861-65, of course, French non-intervention was also significant, if not vital (although that nation was indeed meddling in Mexico at the time). The professor illustrates how complicated the decision-making in Paris was, and how it depended on more than this-or-that American victory or thwarted advance.

Then, of course, there was the question of Britain, which had to balance economic interests, moral pressure, and geopolitical risk. Although it tilted toward the Confederacy, London had to ponder several serious considerations: a) that blockaded Southern cotton imports (80%) for its hungry textile factories were prompting worker unrest; b) that British estimates of the global power balance favored a divided future competitor; and c), that initiating an expensive war-of-choice with the powerful Union by directly supporting a morally ambiguous cause was unwise. Prof. Black reviews the convoluted path England’s leaders took, clarifying it more thoroughly than any other historian that I’ve read.

Although not the first to do this, he also threads an intriguing running comparison between America’s Revolutionary War and its civil struggle 78 years later. The author identifies our First Civil War as occurring in 1775-83; then, Loyalists and Insurgents, each seeing themselves as Patriots, fought one another vigorously.

Black can always catch you a bit off guard with some of his “I Never Would Have Thought of That” connections. For instance, I learned Lincoln’s policy in 1861 echoed that of George III; not to mention, he showed me all the ways that the Napoleonic legacy’s “ghost” and the earlier US victory over Mexico blinded generals to the difficulties of achieving “decisive victory” in a new technological era.

This isn’t to suggest that the author's broadened view neglects concise and insightful battlefield reporting. He is, after all, an excellent military historian. Black is an expert at highlighting details that help you understand campaigns better. For instance, everyone knows that the South had fewer railroad tracks than the North. The fact that there are far fewer junctions between the railheads and the riverways, however, is not as widely discussed. The professor points out that American military leaders were more frustrated in their planning because “military positioning was much easier where such links were more common (as in Europe), not least for logistics.” (p. 97). Black also brings up another less considered aspect, one that tickled my interest: “Creating new militaries was harder in practice than on paper,” and shows why. (Note: the US army went from 16,000 in 1861 to about 2,000,000 in 1864. Their enemy zoomed from 0 to around 800,000 in the same time.)

I hope I have piqued the interest of the jaded Civil War enthusiasts perusing The NYMAS Review to snap up this little gem. If I have failed, I will instead suggest something a trifle more specialized, like The Confederate Receipt Book (1863, recently reprinted), the only known cooking manual published in the rebellious South. I will then turn to those just beginning their journey into the vast literature available, and I would urge them to make Jeremy Black’s most recent work an early waystation.

Readers of The Civil War should not expect any frills, such as maps, battle diagrams, tables, or charts, however; they will only encounter chunky, informative, insightful prose.

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Our Reviewer: A former naval officer, Richard Jupa was a senior finance editor at a major credit rating agency for more than two decades. He is also the co-author of Gulf Wars, on the 1991-1992 Gulf War, and has published over a dozen articles on contemporary conflicts. His previous reviews include Strategy Shelved: The Collapse of Cold War Naval Strategic Planning, Pioneers of Irregular Warfare, Mars Adapting: Military Change During War, A Short History of War, Ancient Greeks at War: Warfare in the Classical World, from Agamemnon to Alexander, Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts, The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260, A Military History of the Cold War, 1962-1991, Secrets of the Cold War, Ramesses the Great, Rome and Persia: The 700 Hundred Year Rivalry, China’s New Navy, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire, and Hannibal and Scipio.

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Note: The Civil War is also available in e-editions.

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