Reviews for The Complete Idiot's Guide to African-American History

The average rating for The Complete Idiot's Guide to African-American History based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-09-11 00:00:00 Sarah Smith A collection of quotes from former slaves with a focus on the Civil War. This one's been sitting on my tbr pile for a while now. February seemed a good month to read it. Glad I did. I learned some surprising insights that made it all worth it. The narrative is a bit disjointed at times since Andrew Ward is acting more as a compiler/editor than an author. It's quote after quote with a statement or two that mostly sets up a section or acts as a bridge of ideas when needed. Still, Ward relies on the former slaves' accounts without embellishment, so occasionally you get what feels like a non sequitur. Aside from that squibble, what you get are some tough-to-hear stories of humans being treated like chattel. The author's note at the end was one of the most useful and necessary I've ever read. It answered questions I didn't realize I'd been forming while reading.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-21 00:00:00 Chris Bonds I read Battle Cry of Freedom several months ago and felt immersed in the politics and battles of the Civil War. It was excellent and comprehensive to say the least. The Slaves' War, though, fills in a gap that was missing-- the point of view of the slaves. This book is told through slave narratives, so the result is a first person account of how the war affected black people as well as their masters who stayed home from the war. I found it fascinating to read the mixed feelings slaves had toward their masters, toward the Yankees, and how they perceived the war as they saw soldiers plunder the plantations and heard rumors of emancipation. It was also heart-breaking to read how the war, as much as any other during slavery it seems, tore apart black families as slaves were "refugeed" to other parts of the south or sold as their masters tried to protect their "property."