Andersonville - (Civil War America) Large Print by William Marvel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Between February 1864 and April 1865, 41,000 Union prisoners of war were taken to the stockade at Anderson Station, Georgia, where nearly 13,000 of them died. Most contemporary accounts placed the blame for the tragedy squarely on the shoulders of the Confederates who administered the prison or on a conspiracy of higher-ranking officials. According to William Marvel, virulent disease and severe shortages of vegetables, medical supplies, and other necessities combined to create a crisis beyond the captors' control. He also argues that the tragedy was aggravated by the Union decision to suspend prisoner exchanges, which meant that many men who might have returned home were instead left to sicken and die in captivity.

From the Back Cover

The New York Intellectuals is an absorbing account of an often misunderstood chapter in the history of literary radicalism and the Marxist intellectual tradition in the United States. It is enriched by more than one hundred personal interviews as well as critical interpretations of novels and short stories depicting the inner life of the group.

Review Quotes

"A fascinating account of this shadowy corner of Confederate history." -- Civil War Regiments

"A thorough, balanced account." -- Journal of American History

"An authoritative history of the camp. . . . A masterful job of historical detective work." -- History: Reviews of New Books

"Fine style: footnoted enough for the scholar, thoroughly readable for everyone else, and studded with lots of contemporary photos." -- Kliatt

"Readers will welcome this well-written, provocative narrative." -- CHOICE

"Succeeds in addressing significant questions in Civil War historiography and interpretation through vivid presentation of the lives and experiences of ordinary soldiers -- prisoners and their captors. . . . A remarkable scholarly and literary achievement, a genuinely pathbreaking book that provides definitive answers to more than a century's worth of questions and controversy." -- Lincoln Prize Citation

"The best account of the tragedy of Andersonville that we have or are likely to have. Not afraid to address controversial issues, [Marvel] analyzes the reasons for the suffering and dying impartially and makes clear that Henry Wirz was a victim of passions that played a larger role than evidence in the postwar trial that convicted him of war crimes. This book is a model for studies of other Civil War prisons, which are much needed." -- James M. McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom: The Era of the Civil War

"This is a long-overdue, first-rate study. The author's approach is scholarly and even-handed." -- James Robertson, Richmond Times-Dispatch

"This well-written and readable monograph is more than a recitation of the facts. It is an analysis of the evolution and events of Andersonville, the most notorious prison of the war. Marvel's book is a valuable contribution to the historiography of Civil War prisons." -- Historian

"William Marvel's Andersonville: The Last Depot appears to be the first history of the prison to take a genuinely objective approach to the question of how and to what ends Confederate authorities established and operated the prison. . . . He presents it in a fluid narrative. The pity is that . . . passions still run so high that in some quarters he will have no chance of a fair hearing." -- Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

About the Author

William Marvel's many books include A Place Called Appomattox, Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox, and The Alabama and the Kearsarge: The Sailor's Civil War (all from the University of North Carolina Press). He lives in South Conway, New Hampshire.