Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War
Provides a vital gut-wrenching counterpoint to the Civil War's glamorization in America's collective memory, a perspective as important to understanding the war as any political history or general's biography.Living Hellwill appeal to lovers of military history while being accessible enough for general readers. Those with the fortitude to endure its darkest moments will find it fascinating.(Shelf Awareness)In Adams’ hands, the Civil War’s legacy is unmitigated personal horror, societal suffering, and political factionalism...Living Hellengagingly opens up the 'dark side' of the Civil War to comparative scrutiny with other modern wars.(Ian IsherwoodCivil War Monitor)This powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification paints a stark portrait of the true brutality of the conflict...Living Hellis a moving, often graphic, exploration of what the war did to men’s bodies and minds.(William C. DavisHistory Book Club)Any who would truly understand the daily trials of the Civil War must have this book!(Midwest Book Review)This book has made an important contribution to Civil War studies by reminding us graphically of the war’s dark side.(James McPhersonNew York Review of Books)We often wrap the American Civil War in a romantic veneer. InLiving Hell, Michael C. C. Adams strips away the facade to provide a necessary and compelling dose of reality about the war as it was seen and experienced by those who lived it. This is not another story of battles and campaigns. It is instead a broad tapestry that takes the reader to many dark corners of the war which are often left unconsidered.(D. Scott Hartwig, author ofTo Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of 1862)Michael C. C. Adams sees the Civil War for what it was, and not how we like to imagine it....Living Hellbrilliantly recovers the terrified voices of men who were emotionally torn and twisted by combat. This is a compelling and important book that forces us to think deeply about how we 'celebrate' the heroism of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.(Peter S. Carmichael, Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies, Gettysburg College)