For Cause And Comrades Summary

The book I chose to read was For Cause & Comrades by James M. McPherson. McPherson is an American Civil War Historian, and is also the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He has written several books on the American Civil War and has received awards such as the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, and the Lincoln Prize in 1998 for his book For Cause & Comrades. McPherson was also the 2003 president of the American Historical Association, and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopedia Britannica. For Cause & Comrades is a historical non-fiction based on more than 25,000 letters and close to 250 private diaries from Civil War soldiers of both armies. This book answers the question why men would fight in the Civil War. He first became obsessed with answering this question when students asked him why 13,000 Confederate soldiers would constantly charge across open terrain in the Battle of Gettysburg while taking heavy rifle and artillery fire, only to fall …show more content…
Through the use of primary resources he painted a picture of what it was like to have fought in the Civil War. Also, the diaries and letter allow you to get inside the heads of soldiers and what they went through every day throughout the war, and how they dealt with it. This is a very important book, without McPherson’s motivation to find an answer as to why men fought other countrymen, brothers, and even fathers, we may still not fully understand why they did what they did. Overall this was a great book, and easily the best Civil War book I have read. It really allows you to understand why the war happened, the motivating factors as to why both sides fought it, and what it was like to have fought in the war. I definitely agree with McPherson’s arguments presented in the book as they are factual primary resources straight from the men on the front