I have come to an early decision that I’m going to approach this book with an open mind because everyone has their own interpretation of history. It has also been a while since I have taken a history class or picked up a history book, so my memory is a little fuzzy regarding history of the Civil War. I do remember that Abraham Lincoln was the president the United States, and that the General of the south was Robert E. Lee but, that is pretty much all I can remember about the Civil War. So for the fact that I have little to no knowledge of the Civil War or history for that matter I am going to approach this book with an open mind.

What I am worried about regarding historical accuracy however, are the reviews that I have read on Amazon. Almost all of the reviews have pointed out one thing and that is that McPherson was bias while writing this book. Instead of just writing about the facts he also included his bias opinion about how the war started, and chose to side with the north and the idea that slavery was the sole reason why the war was started. I am afraid because he was bias in writing this book that he left out important information that could have been added to give a more accurate and detailed story of the Civil War. I am also worried that because McPherson crammed so much information into one single book instead of a multi-volume like most Civil War historians do as another review pointed; some important information might be left out.

The sources/reviews that I trust more are the people that have a good understanding of the facts of the civil war and are not basing their opinion based on what they think they know on the civil war. I will listen to a person’s opinion but, I am not going to take a person’s opinion seriously if they don’t know a lot about the subject. The reason why I trust sources or reviews that have a factual understanding on the subject of the civil war more than a source or review that has a limited amount of knowledge of the facts of the civil war is because I want to make sure that I am not getting any wrong information. If I am going to learn something I want to learn it correctly. I am pretty confident in this book as our main source of information for this class, I just wish that McPherson wasn’t so bias in his writing. I look forward to start reading “Battle Cry of Freedom” and learn more about the civil war.