The Legacy of the Civil War

“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.”

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.

Warren offers some intriguing insights on the long-term impact of the Civil War on our American experience, which continues to color our domestic and international behavior.

A Roman emperor once advised "Do not let your anger guide your actions for the result is always much greater than your initial complaint" .So both North and South had their anger, had their self righteous point of view and so they had at it. But what can we today as individuals glean from this history that is part of our collective DNA? Robert Penn Warren attempts to ask us to examine ourselves and find self knowledge from this clash of wills. This little book of his is a call as relevant today-indeed more relevant than when published. We live in a world of increasing intolerance, fear, self righteousness, anger and self pity. Are we ready for the consequences of individual and collective negatives? Better watch yourself kid.

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.

A very important read for anyone interested in the American civil war

had to read it for school but it was good. I hate reading but I couldn’t put it down and learned a lot.

After about the fifth page of this book, not including the introduction, it became very apparent to me that I would have to get to the end for Warren to postulate what many already know.War is not glorious or just, it is an ugly mess that anybody involved with, in one way or another, is culpable for the evil that all war has. No cause is ever purely just and this country, and any country for that matter, will have the relearn the lessons it ignores ... and minimizes issues it deems inconvenient at the time, at their own peril.The fact that Warren takes 100 pages to get to this point, in the last paragraph, is disappointing.

Lived up to all expectations. No problems at all with the provider.