youkali
Conscript
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:52 pm

Fabulous series of lectures on the Civil War

Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:53 am

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses ... l-war.html

Just came across a copy of these lectures by Gallagher--they're terrific. An antidote to the Shelby Foote "lost cause" school, and full of telling anecdotes about the personalities. Excellent bibliography as well.

His analysis leads me to believe CW2 places too much emphasis on leadership. Lee, for example, was too reckless, but lucky, at least until 2pm on the 3rd. McClellan, on the other hand, he agrees was either a coward or a traitor.

One of the real eye-openers is his discussion of how contemporary opinion differs from ours--nobody, N or S, thought Gettysburg was a great turning point in the war, for example.

I've done of lot of Teaching Co. lectures, all the way back to Ancient Egypt, and this is one of, if not, the best.

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