I was wondering about Catton as a "Yankee," which is not exactly right. But Shelby Foote's famous three-volume history of the Civil War was, in part, inspired by Catton's and at the same time a riposte to it. The two did come to similar conclusions nonetheless.
I’ve also read Foote’s history, which is a tour de force. But it’s different from Catton’s in that it’s a general history of the conflict. What I admire about Catton is the way in which he portrays the epic of the Army of the Potomac as a microcosm of the nation’s passage through the fires and frosts of the Civil War. No other war in American history presents the historian with such an opportunity.
Well, as I Yankee myself (I’m a native of Massachusetts) I would have no problem with that, but Catton’s trilogy is not a polemic but, as I wrote, the biography of an army among the greatest in American military history.
I was wondering about Catton as a "Yankee," which is not exactly right. But Shelby Foote's famous three-volume history of the Civil War was, in part, inspired by Catton's and at the same time a riposte to it. The two did come to similar conclusions nonetheless.
I’ve also read Foote’s history, which is a tour de force. But it’s different from Catton’s in that it’s a general history of the conflict. What I admire about Catton is the way in which he portrays the epic of the Army of the Potomac as a microcosm of the nation’s passage through the fires and frosts of the Civil War. No other war in American history presents the historian with such an opportunity.
It was fought here on American soil. And yes, Foote is broad and sweeping. Catton is a series of zoom-ins.
Exactly so.
He is a very skilled narrator.
I have always thought of Catton as a "Yankee historian". Your thoughts?
Well, as I Yankee myself (I’m a native of Massachusetts) I would have no problem with that, but Catton’s trilogy is not a polemic but, as I wrote, the biography of an army among the greatest in American military history.