Talk:Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

Untitled

How can we add to this stub? Amishjedi (talk) 14:51, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is a Pulitzer Prize-winning work of history published in 1988 by James M. McPherson. It was written as Volume 6 in the Oxford History of the United States series, though it was actually the second to be published (only Robert Middlekauff’s The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 preceded it).

Content

Battle Cry covered two decades, the period from the outbreak of the Mexican-American War to the Civil War’s ending at Appomattox. Thus, it examined ‘the Civil War era’, not just the civil war as it combined the social, military and political events of the period within a single narrative framework. One reviewer commends McPherson’s for initially describing “the republic at midcentury” as “a divided society, certainly, and a violent one, but not one in which so appalling a phenomenon as civil war is likely. So it must have seemed to most Americans at the time. Slowly, slowly the remote possibility became horrible actuality; and Mr. McPherson sees to it that it steals up on his readers in the same way.”

A central concern of this work is the multiple interpretations of Freedom itself. In an interview, McPherson claimed: “Both sides in the Civil War professed to be fighting for the same "freedoms" established by the American Revolution and the Constitution their forefathers fought for in the Revolution—individual freedom, democracy, a republican form of government, majority rule, free elections, etc. For Southerners, the Revolution was a war of secession from the tyranny of the British Empire, just as their war was a war of secession from Yankee tyranny. For Northerners, their fight was to sustain the government established by the Constitution with its guaranties of rights and liberties.”

References

Reception

Battle Cry was an immediate commercial and critical success, an unexpected achievement for an over 900-page history book. It spent 16 weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list with an additional 12 weeks on the paperback list Writing for The New York Times, Historian Hugh Brogan described it as "...the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across. It may actually be the best ever published."

Filterkaapi71 (talk) 19:12, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

References

Planning move to Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era per WP:SUBTITLE

Per WP:SUBTITLE, When the most commonly used name is ambiguous, the full title and subtitle might be suitable to be used as a form of natural disambiguation—Orlando: A Biography, not Orlando (novel), nor Orlando (book).

Currently, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is a redirect to Battle Cry of Freedom (book). I think it would be best to move this article to there and make the redirect run the other way. Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 07:15, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

@Hydrangeans: Agreed. Probably best to do a formal move request though. –CWenger (^ • @) 15:13, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Good thinking with a formal move request. I think it makes sense to go ahead and put that through. I'll list it as a non-technical request. Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 21:39, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 17 March 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (non-admin closure) Killarnee (talk) 07:27, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

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Battle Cry of Freedom (book) → Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era – Currently, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era redirects to this article. However, per WP:SUBTITLE, When the most commonly used name is ambiguous, the full title and subtitle might be suitable to be used as a form of natural disambiguation—Orlando: A Biography, not Orlando (novel), nor Orlando (book). As Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is still concise and is the natural, recognizable name of the book, I think switching this around—so Battle Cry of Freedom (book) redirected to Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era—would be an benefit. Users searching for it by title will find it without redirects, and editors who need to link the title will be able to do so with less piping. Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 21:44, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

• Support per WP:SUBTITLE. –CWenger (^ • @) 22:25, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.