The way that I will approach Battle Cry of Freedom will be done with a just a small amount of caution. The reasoning of my somewhat skeptical thoughts would be in part to be able to differentiate what is fact and what is James McPherson personal opinion. I myself do not know much about the Civil War and therefore I am not certain of true facts. However, I would assume that because James McPherson is a Professor of United States History at Princeton University and that our teacher has choose this book as our reading material it should be pretty accurate. Again, I know that I should also make sure to separate McPherson opinions and actually into consideration.

            There is not too much that I am worried about when it comes to the historical accuracy of McPherson’s book. The reasons being is that he has studied this particular war for some time in order to be a Professor of United States history. I will make sure to ask any questions that may arise.

            As for the sources/reviews of this book I would hands down trust the review from New York Times.  I believe that this review has the most reliable background. The New York Times has been around since 1851 and the paper’s print version remains the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States (1). I also noticed that the NY Times Article was the only that was cited on the bibliography, which makes me question the other reviews. I am a little leery about the review from notnew.org. I could not really find very much about them or what they are exactly. Not knowing what they are and what their credentials are makes me skeptical. As for the reviews on Amazon, I take all of the reviews with a grain of salt. It doesn’t say who any of the people are that are reviewing the book. Nor does it even say what their qualifications are on the Civil War or US History. It seems that they are normal everyday people that wanted to learn a little about the Civil War. Their comments were more about how the book read and not about the lack of facts or that the facts were incorrect. They seemed to review this book as a non-fiction book rather than an educational one.

            As I researched more on who and where these reviews came from I became more confident in the historical information in this book. I will still try to take McPherson's personal opinions in to consideration but other than that I will look for facts. I can’t wait to truly start reading this book and learning about the Civil War. Let’s just say I am very intrigued about this part of US History.

Bibliography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Date: January 9, 2015

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times