Download The Legacy of the Civil War Robert Penn Warren Howard Jones 9780803298019 Books

Product details Paperback 109 pages Publisher Bison Books; Reprint edition (March 1, 1998) Language English ISBN-10 0803298013

The Legacy of the Civil War Robert Penn Warren Howard Jones 9780803298019 Books Reviews

• “We have not yet achieved justice, we have not yet created a union which is, in the deepest sense, a community. We have not yet resolved our deep dubieties or self-deceptions. In other words, we are sadly human, and in our contemplation of the Civil War we see a dramatization of our humanity. One appeal of the War is that it holds in suspension, beyond all schematic readings and claims to total interpretation, so many of the issues and tragic ironies - somehow essential yet incommensurable - which we yet live.
  
  “But there is a deeper appeal. Beyond the satisfaction it may give to rancor, self-righteousness, spite, pride, spiritual pride, vindictiveness, armchair blood lust, and complacency, we can see in the Civil War an image of the powerful, painful, grinding process by which an ideal emerges out of history. That should teach us humility…but at the same time draw us to the glory of the human effort to win meaning from the complex and confused motives and the blind ruck of event.
  
  “Looking back on the years 1861-65 we see how the individual men, despite failings, blindness, and vice, may affirm for us the possibility of the dignity of life. It is a tragic dignity that their story affirms, but it may evoke strength. And in the contemplation of the story, some of that grandeur, even in the midst of the confused issues, shadowy chances, and brutal ambivalences of our life and historical moment, may rub off on us. And that may be what we yearn for after all.”
• Prompt delivery of a book that helps us understand not just the past, but also ourselves.
• As the centennial of the Civil War approached Life magazine asked Robert Penn Warren to write an essay on the impact the war had on America. Warren, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and numerous other prizes accepted. This small book is the essay he wrote in 1961. While Warren never considered himself a historian, he had a lifelong love of history and published a biography on John Brown. His grandfather, who fought for the South while believing in Union, told him about the Civil War and instilled in him a love of history.
  
  This essay is as fresh and new today as it was in 1961. Warren's thoughts on the war, what he calls "The Great Alibi" and the "Treasury of Virtue" are still accurate. This is one of the great essays on the American Civil War, the impact on American history and how it affects us today. The style of writing is interesting, intelligent and very easy to read. You will quickly be caught up in the logic even as you identify current positions and come to understand their historic importance.
• great
• All Americans should read this book. An open-minded, objective Southern scholar, Robert Penn Warren has contributed prize-winning fiction, thoughtful essays and gripping poetry to the American literary landscape. It seems that his goal/desire is to help the reader understand the whys and wherefores of the mentality of the American South. That is a daunting challenge, but he has met it with grace and scholarly insight. I am a devotee of everything Warren has written, and I return to his works again and again.
• Robert Penn Warren was certainly an intellectual that was laying out his view of the war's legacy. I thought it was very instructive. Not an easy or casual read, but a worthwhile one.
• I expected a southern writer to be sympathetic to the southern view - He wasn't
• Warren was quite an intellectual. His perspective is fascinating and insightful. Others may dismiss him, but I was very impressed.