Book Review by Neil Morley
Most people will recognise the name of the author from his well known and much liked science fiction books. Equally, many will not be aware of his authorship of history books!
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For those of us who regularly attend the American Civil War Round Table meetings at the Civil Service Club in London and participate in the raffle to assist in funding our preservation projects will be aware of the wide variety of Civil War related books and memorabilia available as prizes. I was fortunate enough to win this book at one of our meetings. Unlike many of our members I buy very few new and recently published tomes as I have too many unread books and am a slow reader!
Being a poor history buff I was less familiar with the build up to the ACW and was delighted to read this work. It is not only informative but also an enjoyable read with dates and locations of birth of all the subjects involved. For me, this was very helpful and clarifying.
In this book he writes eloquently about Lincoln’s predecessors and their benign or otherwise influence on what was to come to pass. The coverage of the Civil War is scant but that does not detract from a well written and readable account. Members of the Round Table will undoubtably have many volumes to which they can refer for the war period.
This book is the third in a four volume series. The others in the series are:
·      The Shaping of North America
·      The Birth of the United States
·      The Golden Door
Neil Morley
April 2024