Shelby Foote’s “The Civil War: A Narrative”

Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative is an epic three volume work, years in the making, that decades after its first printing remains the definitive narrative history of the Civil War.

Begun in 1958 as a 200,000 word book on the battle of Shiloh, Foote soon discovered that his material was much too expansive for a single book. This first book, Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), grew to include two more volumes, Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974). Collectively, the books are known as The Civil War: A Narrative.

Primarily a novelist, not an historian, Foote put his fiction-writing on the back burner for twenty years, while he toiled at the task of documenting the military experience of the Civil War, supporting himself with grants from the Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Fellowships, and loans from friends. However, when he was finished, he had created what is, for many, the most important literary history of the Civil War.

Since Foote was born and reared in Mississippi, many were surprised by The Civil War: A Narrative’s evenhandedness and lack of overt Southern sympathy. However, Foote’s admiration for figures from both side of the conflict is evident in his writing, and lends authenticity and believability to the books.

The Civil War: A Narrative and Shelby Foote alike found renewed fame upon the airing of Ken Burns’ The Civil War on PBS in the early 1990s. Foote, who was featured in many of the documentary’s segments, proved to be an engaging interview subject, and gained fans who’d never heard of him or his acclaimed Civil War epic. His newfound fame resulted in astounding sales for a series of books published 20 years and more previously, and made a millionaire out of the man who’d lived on grants and loans in order to finish his opus.

If you are a Civil War enthusiast, you owe yourself a copy of The Civil War: A Narrative. The series is that rare animal that appeals to both the casual reader and the academic, incredibly literary yet anecdotal and compulsively readable at the same time. Shelby Foote’s reputation late in life as America’s eminent Civil War historian was well-earned, as these books prove.

The three-volume set The Civil War: A Narrative can be purchased through The American Civil War Store by clicking on this link.