"50 Best CW books?" Topic

For what it's worth here is the list of the 50 best Civil War books from the Philadelphia Round Table below. Many deserve to be on the list, some maybe not but I have some issues with their order but at least it provides lots of discussion fun. :)

1. The Civil War: A Narrative – Shelby Foote
2. Battle Cry of Freedom – James McPherson
3. Killer Angels – Michael Shaara
4. Lee's Lieutenants – Douglas Freeman
5. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend – James Robertson
6. The Gettysburg Campaign – Edwin B. Coddington
7. Co. Aytch – Sam Watkins
8. A Stillness at Appomattox – Bruce Catton
9. Confederacy' s Last Hurrah/Embrace an Angry Wind – Wiley Sword
10. Fighting for the Confederacy – E. Porter Alexander
11. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam – Stephen W. Sears
12. Gettysburg – Stephen W. Sears
13. American Brutus – Michael Kauffman
14. Gettysburg: The Second Day – Harry W. Pfanz
15. Generals in Blue – Ezra J. Warner
16. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time – William A. Frassanito
17. Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
18. A Little Short Of Boats: The Fights at Ball's Bluff and Edward's Ferry – James A. Morgan, III
19. Centennial History of the Civil War – Bruce Catton
20. Harvard's Civil War: The History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – Richard Miller
21. Mosby's Rangers – Jeffry D. Wert
22. The Golden Book of the Civil War – American Heritage
23. Confederates in the Attic – Tony Horwitz
24. April 1865: The Month That Saved America – Jay Winik
25. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga – Peter Cozzens
26. Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 – Joseph Harsh
27. Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 – Steven E. Woodworth
28. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy – Bell Irvin Wiley
29. The Civil War Dictionary – Mark Boatner
30. Robert E. Lee – Douglas Southall Freeman
31. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years – Carl Sandberg
32. The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
33. The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion – Participants
34. Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle – John Michael Priest
35. The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox – John C. Waugh
36. Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor – Russell S. Bonds
37. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West – Shea & Hess
38. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant – Ulysses S. Grant
39. Hardtack & Coffee – John Billings
40. The Guns of Gettysburg – Fairfax Downey
41. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
42. Warrior Generals – Thomas Buell
43. Generals in Gray – Ezra J. Warner
44. Battles & Leaders of the Civil War – Various
45. Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas – John Hennessy
46. The Secret War for the Union – Edwin C. Fishel
47. Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland – James Connolly
48. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign – Kent Masterson Brown
49. Last Full Measure – Jeff Shaara
50. Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg – Eric J. Wittenberg & J. David Petruzzi

From a roundtable in philadelphia? And foote was #1? I would expect that from rural Georgia maybe.

It's a good list. I'm puzzled by why one of McPherson's books on motivation (Cause and Comrades, or What they fought for) wasn't included.

Looks like it's really orientated towards battles and land battles at that.

It would be interesting to know how the list was arrived at. I presume that roundtable members were asked for their favorite books and the list reflects the greatest number in agreement. Who knows how many participated.

That list gives a good sense of the critical competence of the Round Table.

Allen

Pfanz
Cozzens
Freeman
Catton
Grant
Harsh

I would include Rhea (the only 1864 Overland campaign series).

Killer Angels is a fun read, but Sears is a much better book on Gettysburg

Foote is a joy to read, but it is a narrative and not a history.

The Golden Book of the Civil War – American Heritage is what started it all for me as a boy in 1962 when my dad, who worked all the hours God sent, made a point of reading it to me in those few free evenings he had. It sparked my love for military history, leading down the road to become the broken man you see before you today.

Allen,

I somewhat agree with you… maybe 75%. :)

Lists like these are more for fun than anything else, I think. Especially when you scan the list and see such books as Gone With the Wind and Killer Angels etc. These might be entertaining but certainly not on a list of the top 50. Then you see the weird scale of which book is where. Why is 43. Generals in Gray much lower than 15. Generals in Blue?! What the heck?! I have them both and they are pretty much the same. All this just shows where the group is coming from and what they liked and what they liked a little less.

Personally I'd axe some on the list, add others and switch around the order but it's kinda fun to see what others consider the 50 Best.

One other note I was surprised and pleased to see:

33. The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
4. Lee's Lieutenants
39. Hardtack & Coffee
38. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

… because they seem to get overlooked nowadays. All of these are great reading. Each has it's own charm and appeal in a warm and fuzzy way. :)

Bogus list, agree with Allen 100%. The campaigns in the Heartland and Mississippi mostly ignored, as is the naval war. Books on the eastern theater a zany and eclectic lot, some gold, some not so good.

We can quibble but all worthy of having in your Civil War library.

I think the best sources are still "Battles & Leaders of the Civil War", the "Official Records of the War of Rebellion" and the memoirs of relevant participants of the War such as Ulysses S.Grant, Sherman, and so on.
Then, and only then, the secondary sources follow.
Regards

They left off Gordon Rhea? I can't believe they left him off the list and included pseudo-historian Shaara-fils.

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War in 4 volumes has to be at the top of any list.