The Scourge of War, Brian Holden Reid
The Scourge of War, Brian Holden Reid
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The Scourge of War
The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman

Author: Brian Holden Reid

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Unabridged: 24 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/16/2021


Synopsis

In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of William Tecumseh Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist.

After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war.

About Brian Holden Reid

Brian Holden Reid is professor of American history and military institutions at King's College London. He is the author of Robert E. Lee: Icon of a Nation, The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century, and America's Civil War: The Operational Battlefield, 1861-1863, among other books. In 2019, he was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History for his contributions to the field.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Steve on August 22, 2020

[URL not allowed] Brian Holden Reid’s “The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman” was published earlier this year and has received high marks for its scholarship. The author is currently Visiting Professor of American History and Military Institutions at King’s C......more

Goodreads review by Mark on February 04, 2024

William Tecumseh Sherman ranks among the most celebrated and controversial figures in American military history. His famous “Marches” – first to Georgia’s coast, then northward through the Carolinas – earned him the hatred of generations of Southerners and has been viewed by some as an early version......more

Goodreads review by Janet on July 27, 2020

One of my least favorite books recently. Let me say, I did learn some things about Sherman 1) After his freakout early in the war (incorrectly labelled by Reid as an adjustment reaction in my humble opinion), he was an excellent battlefield general. This may be because he had ADD and in a crisis he c......more

Goodreads review by May on December 08, 2020

The author of this book has a definite viewpoint, which is that William Tecumseh Sherman got a bad rap and was not the savage butcher and scourge of the South that he has been portrayed to be. I don't generally like biographies with a set agenda, but I was intrigued by the premise of this one. And,......more

Goodreads review by Tom on August 27, 2020

Extremely well written biography & history of the western campaigns of the Civil War. Sherman was a brilliant mind and excellent commander. Read this book to dispel misconceptions regarding his contributions.......more