Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3 reviews for:
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863
Edward L. Ayers
3.79 AVERAGE
3 reviews for:
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863
Edward L. Ayers
3.79 AVERAGE
I don't typically include "books for work" on here, but I'm including this one because I think it would appeal to someone with a more casual interest in the Civil War. The book stems from an interesting project--it does pretty in-depth research of two counties, one north and one south, before and during the US Civil War. The narrative tone is strong, but Ayers intersperses the words of the people in these counties with sections that help set broader context politically and militarily in the country, so you should be able to have some understanding of what these people are responding to, even without a strong grasp of the Civil War.
This is actually the third time I've read it, and I still really enjoy it. Most of the sources Ayers uses are newspapers, letters, and diaries, and so you do begin to feel that you understand the people in here and a little bit of the world in which they live. Most of my students (who bothered to read it) seem to have enjoyed it too, because it is far from "textbook-y."
This is actually the third time I've read it, and I still really enjoy it. Most of the sources Ayers uses are newspapers, letters, and diaries, and so you do begin to feel that you understand the people in here and a little bit of the world in which they live. Most of my students (who bothered to read it) seem to have enjoyed it too, because it is far from "textbook-y."
Such a lucid, impressively researched narrative history of two Civil War counties that were so close but so far apart. How I wish I’d read this when it first came out.
In the Presence of Mine Enemies by Edward L. Ayers tells the story of the Civil War not as we usually hear it, from generals and presidents. Instead, he follows the experiences of Franklin county in Pennsylvania and Augusta county in Virginia. It makes the war more personal, as he shows how North and South begin to hate each other, and the dead as not statistics but as obituaries in their local newspaper. My only complaint is that the book ends in 1863, before the battle of Gettysburg. It makes the story seem half-finished.