In case it hasn’t been readily apparent from my previous posts, I am and always have been a history nut … and a sucker for illustrated volumes in the genre. There’s a very good reason my third-grade teacher, tired of repeatedly finding me with Life Through the Ages by Giovanni Caselli under my desk, told me to “Take it home, memorize it, and NEVER TOUCH IT AGAIN.” Luckily for all concerned, my parents got me my own personal copy for Christmas. That particular volume, complete with really gorgeous illustrations, wasn’t the only book I got caught reading in class (far from it), but it was the most frequent offender.
All of which is my long-winded and extremely roundabout way of explaining why I loved Harold Holzer’s The Civil War in Fifty Objects.
In a rather unusual narrative style, this book is exactly what it says on the cover: an attempt to tell the story of the Civil War through the medium of 50 wildly different objects, more or less chronologically arranged, with gorgeous color plates of each one. In doing so, this volume manages to convey both breadth and depth – not an easy feat, especially upon so complex and convoluted a subject as the Civil War. Around each chosen object, Holzer weaves a brilliant and enthralling narrative. Not only does he describe the object in great detail (what it was, how it was used, who owned it, and where it came from), but he also establishes context within the greater view of the War Between the States, conveying its full significance. This is not just history, but story-telling at its finest.
The objects are all taken from the collection of the New York Historical Society, which contains over a million Civil War artifacts. How they managed to select a mere fifty to focus on simply boggles the mind. In selecting a representative sample from the collection, Holzer covers an incredibly wide range of objects, including both art and artifacts, from the extremely large (the Emancipation Proclamation) to the very small (collections of Confederate uniform buttons). To the casual observer, a number of these items would not be termed significant or important, yet so much about everyday life can be extrapolated even from the smallest of artifacts.
The narrative is rather New-York-centric, but this is only to be expected, given the source of the objects. Even so, there is equal attention given to both sides of the conflict, with all viewpoints explored. In addition, this also serves to give perspective to the deeply divided nature of New York City during the war, even before the 1863 Draft Riots . Up until now, I hadn’t realized that in 1861, under mayor Fernando Wood, the Big Apple had seriously considered seceding from the Union!
The title is slightly deceiving – there are somewhat more than 50 objects featured in this volume – although each chapter is centered around one particular piece, most chapters include at least one supplementary image, to help provide context and perspective for the main object. All in color, all beautiful. Although not truly comparable to seeing the objects in person, this book comes a close second for those of us who don’t live in NYC, or haven’t had the chance to visit … sigh.
As great as the book is overall, I have to admit that my favorite part was the chapter titles, which are witty and evocative, poking fun at even the most somber of objects, even with the occasional terrible pun: “Wheel of Misfortune” for a Draft Wheel from 1863; “A Dentist Drills Lincoln” on the etchings of Adalbert Johann Volck, dentist by trade and self-taught Confederate artist; “The Draft that Really Ended the War”, referring to the rough draft of Grant’s Terms of Surrender; and best (or worst) of all “A Helping Hand for the Wounded Veteran” for a letter from said veteran … written with his new artificial arm!
This is not a general history of the Civil War, nor it is even an overview of the subject: that would require far more than fifty objects. Instead, through a series of snapshots and vignettes, Holzer offers us a new perspective on a familiar subject: the perfect marriage of the verbal and the visual.
~Paige
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