The American War: A History of the Civil War Era by Gary W. Gallagher, Joan Waugh (review)

As general surveys of the Civil War era go, Gary Gallagher and Joan Waugh’s The American War is of middling length—considerably shorter than recent works by David Goldfield and Allen Guelzo but longer than Louis Masur’s very compact history. Instructors wishing to assign several monographs or primary accounts will find that this book more than fills the bill as a short text. Handsomely produced with good readable type, The American War is an inviting volume written in a direct and accessible style that provides an extraordinarily useful introduction to the major events and questions of the period.

Gallagher and Waugh incorporate some of the latest scholarship but also cover the standard material; the crisp treatment of complicated topics is especially laudable. A carping critic might complain that the authors too often follow the mainstream interpretations of controversial subjects, but perhaps that is because the mainstream interpretations are often the most convincing ones. The authors focus on three deceivingly simple sounding issues: the causes of the Civil War, the reasons for the Union triumph over the Confederacy, and the success or failure of Reconstruction. Yet the book does not get bogged down in either abstract explanations or historiography because Gallagher and Waugh keep the human dimension of these tragic years in mind. They maintain that most Americans in the prewar decades did not spend all that much time thinking about sectional questions and that in any case perceived sectional differences caused the most trouble. By the 1850s, the authors cogently observe, “each side expected the worst from the other” (15).

Anyone can quibble over the topical coverage in such a relatively short work. Did the Union blockade receive adequate treatment, or did the small number of women who served in the armies deserve less attention? In some cases, the authors deal with contentious subjects without taking a clear position. For example, how much popular support was there for secession? Readers might also have appreciated stronger judgments on how each side handled the Sumter crisis, on who bore responsibility for prison conditions, and on the degree to which white women both sustained and undermined Confederate morale.

Without doubt, however, the strengths of this volume far outweigh any weaknesses. Gallagher and Waugh excel in explicating unfamiliar subjects such as Union and Confederate fiscal policies. Likewise, their perceptive analyses will help students appreciate the various stages of soldier life or the nature of Civil War nursing. Vivid evidence enhances the treatment of even mundane topics such as Confederate control of railroads.

The American War’s final chapter on memory outlines the major points of the Union Cause, the Emancipation Cause, the Lost Cause, and the Reconciliation Cause along with some sharp commentary. The authors describe former Confederates as “losers on a grand scale” (237). On Robert E. Lee, they pointedly ask, “What other rebel chieftain, anywhere at any time, has received comparable notice from the nation his military efforts almost dismembered?” (240). In the public mind, they conclude, the Union Cause has “disappeared almost entirely” (247).

On several controversial subjects such as free-labor ideology and soldier motivation, Gallagher and Waugh offer carefully balanced treatments. In dealing with the political battles of the Reconstruction period, they pay close attention to Republican moderates—a group often slighted in textbook coverage. At several points, The American War presents conclusions that should provoke lively class discussion. Gallagher and Waugh claim that the Confederates stood a better chance of success in the Civil War than did the American colonies in their war against the British. The authors further argue that the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days battles were a critical turning point, and thus they loom larger in these pages than Gettysburg or Vicksburg or Atlanta or the Overland Campaign. Gallagher and Waugh emphasize the role of Lincoln (in their view a “racial conservative” [87]) and the Union army...