Quirky is as quirky does.

This book definitely has its oddities -- as when the author insists on identifying generals as being generals U.S.A. or U.S.V., i.e. as generals in the regular army or the "volunteer" army that would disband when the Civil War was over. There is some logic to making this point -- but Weigley never really explains how the whole U.S.A./U.S.V. system worked. (And it's worth understanding, since it explains, e.g., how George Custer could be a Civil War general but, a decade later, would die as an army colonel).

One of the other quirks is made explicit in the title: this is a military and political history. A great deal of time is devoted to the home-front shenanigans of the various parties and politicians. This would be a very good idea -- but, somehow, it doesn't come off very well. Knowing that there were a lot of governors who opposed Lincoln is important, but we never get a real feeling for why. The book doesn't explain enough about pre-war politics to really let us understand how they evolved during the war. As a result, the political sections tend to weigh the book down -- and, of course, they don't leave as much room for the military history, which generally moves much more quickly.

I don't mean to be entirely critical. There is good material here that doesn't show up in some of the more "standard" histories such as those by Catton and McPherson. But the flip side is, if you're reading a one-volume history, odds are that you don't want all the details. You want a good, easy-to-read, accurate, interesting history. By that standard, this volume falls rather short. ( )