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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Book Review - Curiosities of the Civil War

About the Book
Instead of offering another look at the most significant military and political events, Curiosities of the Civil War focuses on relatively unknown and obscure aspects of the war.

It is estimated that 623,000 soldiers died during the Civil War. If the June 1865 surrender of Kirby-Smith’s forces is taken as the last hurrah of the Confederacy, then the war lasted almost fifty months. Fighting took place on each of the war’s approximately 1,396 days from 1861 to 1865; as tabulated by Frederick H. Dyer, 10,455 military “events” took place during the war. Millions of men and thousands of encounters produced a multitude of extraordinary things.

Numerous chapters in Curiosities of the Civil War focus upon events or emphases that have been neglected—maybe because they’re hard to locate. It is all but impossible to find more than an occasional reference to banishment or deportation, and major multi-volume works seldom include an index entry dealing with “hostages.” Subjects such as “atrocities” and “appraisals by contemporaries,” to say nothing of “Lincoln’s appearance,” are not found in standard Civil War encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Even seasoned readers are likely to discover much that is new and fresh here. Whether you’re a lifelong enthusiast or just beginning to get acquainted with the Civil War, you’ll find a trove of conversation-starters here.

My Take on the Book
If you are a history buff and you like learning amazing tibits of knowledge that you would have never known before, then this book is made for you! The author does an amazing job at finding the hidden stories of the civil war and making them come alive. Most of his stories are about regular individuals doing irregular things, many times because of the circumstance that they were placed in due to the war itself.

The book was huge, spanning over 500 pages, and most stories are quite short so you can easily get through them with .in a short period of time. With this in mind, though having the shorter stores were nice I did like the longer ones a bit better because of the amount of details that were shared in these.

The book was shared in a wonderful hardback that is definitely one that will last for many years! This book is definitely the perfect gift for the Civil War buff!

I was provided with a free copy of this book by BookSneeze in exchange for my honest review!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.


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