The Civil War, 1861-1965, Interactive Package of Image and Text - Book and Illustrated CD-ROM

by David Roth

The Civil War was the culmination of years of division and political conflict between the largely agrarian South and the industrialized North. It was a war that employed the very latest in military... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: 1858339812
• ISBN13: 9781858339818
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Zig Zag Papers
• Weight: 4.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

THIS WAS A WONDERFUL AND USEFUL ADDITION TO MY COLLECTION.

I must state here in the beginning that I am not overly fond of coffee table books and am particularly not overly fond of coffee table books dealing with historical events. This work is an exception though to my normal prejudices. I was presented this book as a gift in 1998 when I went through my second (but not last) retirement and I must admit I groaned mentally when I saw it...how wrong I was! This is one LARGE book measuring 14 inches by 10 and on half inches. It contains over 250 pages and each of these pages are filled with black and white photograph, woodcuts, drawings, sketches, news articles, broadsides and commentary. Some of the photographs cover two entire pages... they are like posters! The paper uses is a non-gloss heavy stock that feels good to touch and gives a natural feel and look to the hundreds of illustrations. I think of the several things I appreciate as to this work is the sheer size of many of the photographs. They are very large and there is no need to squint or use a glass to make out facial and other details. The photographs and illustrations have been taken from the prestigious Bettmann Archives and those that have needed enhances have been, but with a delicate and judicial hand. Many of these illustrations will be familiar to the student of this era, yet many others have been published here for the first time. To be quite frank, even the jaded historian of the Civil War era will find themselves spending hours looking and reexamining these pictures, illustrations, et al. The details of uniforms, equipment, battlefields and camp life are some of the best I have had the pleasure of viewing. The text is quite informative and accompanies each illustration. It is quite detailed but few words are wasted here...you get the information you need without being told how to process it...in other words, the author does not treat you like someone who just fell off the turnip wagon. I like that. The book is broken down into eight section; Introduction (very well done), A Nation Divided, The call of Arms, Total War, The Changing Tide, Breaking the Deadlock, The Final Reckoning and finally, The Aftermath of War. This is easy to follow and the chronology is precisely addressed and recorded. There is an interactive CD ROM that goes with this work, something I must admit to having paid little attention to. It does work but you must have: Macintosh System 7 or later 8MB RAM 256 Color Monitor Quicktime with Extension recommended and a CD-ROM drive Windows: Windows 95 486 DX66 processor or better 8MB RAM 254 colors VGA and CD-ROM Drive What little I did watch was good. It is a collection of 100 high quality, drum-scanned photographs in color plus a very nice text. For those of you who collect this sort of work, it is one of those that is almost a must have. For those of you that just enjoy a pleasurable evening, this is certainly one that you will want to check from your local library. For those of you who collect