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A review by citizen_noir
Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne
3.0
I’m a big fan of S.C. Gwynne’s nonfiction. EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER is an epic retelling of the forty year conflict between Comanche Indians and whites for control of the American West, told partly through the story of the abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker. REBEL YELL is the biography of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, and perhaps my all time favorite book about the U.S. Civil War. I love the way Gwynne inhabits his characters in these books, bringing them to life on the page the way few historians are able to do. I tore through both of these books as fast as possible, completely engrossed in the stories.
Perhaps it’s my admiration for Gwynne’s past work that leads me to give HYMNS OF THE REPUBLIC: THE STORY OF THE FINAL YEAR OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR such a lackluster review of three stars.
Part of the problem is the decision to write only about the final year of the war with single chapters devoted to the perspectives of such titanic figures as Grant, Lee, Lincoln, and Davis, as well as “lesser known” leaders like John Mosby, Philip Sheridan, William Sherman, and Clara Barton. While many of these chapters are solid, the jumping around of perspective causes one to lose the main organizational structure of the book: the final year of the war. I also think there’s just not that much more that can be rehashed about the Civil War.
While Gwynne is a strong writer, there isn’t a lot of new information that I gained by reading this. I would make exceptions to this statement for the excellent chapters devoted to Clara Barton and John Mosby - I would love to see him tackle biographies of both individuals.
Perhaps it’s my admiration for Gwynne’s past work that leads me to give HYMNS OF THE REPUBLIC: THE STORY OF THE FINAL YEAR OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR such a lackluster review of three stars.
Part of the problem is the decision to write only about the final year of the war with single chapters devoted to the perspectives of such titanic figures as Grant, Lee, Lincoln, and Davis, as well as “lesser known” leaders like John Mosby, Philip Sheridan, William Sherman, and Clara Barton. While many of these chapters are solid, the jumping around of perspective causes one to lose the main organizational structure of the book: the final year of the war. I also think there’s just not that much more that can be rehashed about the Civil War.
While Gwynne is a strong writer, there isn’t a lot of new information that I gained by reading this. I would make exceptions to this statement for the excellent chapters devoted to Clara Barton and John Mosby - I would love to see him tackle biographies of both individuals.