Bruce Catton Popular Books

Bruce Catton Biography & Facts

Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses. His books were researched well and included footnotes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1954 for his book A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), a study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia and third book in his Army of the Potomac trilogy. Early life Charles Bruce Catton was born in Petoskey, Michigan, to George R. and Adela M. (Patten) Catton, and raised in Benzonia, Michigan. His father was a Congregationalist minister, who accepted a teaching position in Benzonia Academy and later became the academy's headmaster. As a boy, Catton first heard the reminiscences of the aged veterans who had fought in the Civil War. In his memoir, Waiting for the Morning Train (1972), Catton explained how their stories made a lasting impression upon him: [These stories gave] a color and a tone not merely to our village life, but to the concept of life with which we grew up ... I think I was always subconsciously driven by an attempt to restate that faith and to show where it was properly grounded, how it grew out of what a great many young men on both sides felt and believed and were brave enough to do. During 1916, Catton began attending Oberlin College, but he quit because of World War I without completing a degree.Journalism career After serving briefly with the United States Navy during World War I, Catton became a reporter and editor for the newspapers The Cleveland News (as a freelance reporter), the Boston American (1920–1924), and the Cleveland The Plain Dealer (1925). From 1926 to 1941, he worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a Scripps-Howard syndicate), for which he wrote editorials and book reviews, as well as serving as a Washington, D.C. correspondent. Catton tried twice to complete his studies, but found himself repeatedly distracted by his newspaper work. Oberlin College awarded him an honorary degree in 1956. Writing career At the start of World War II, Catton was too old for military service. During 1941, he accepted a position as Director of Information for the War Production Board, and later he had similar jobs in the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior. His experiences as a federal employee prepared him to write his first book, The War Lords Of Washington, during 1948. Although the book was not a commercial success, it inspired Catton to quit federal employment to become a full-time author.In 1954, Catton accepted the position as founding editor of the new magazine American Heritage. Catton served initially as a writer, reviewer, and editor. In the first issue, he wrote: We intend to deal with that great, unfinished and illogically inspiring story of the American people doing, being and becoming. Our American heritage is greater than any one of us. It can express itself in very homely truths; in the end it can lift up our eyes beyond the glow in the sunset skies. Army of the Potomac trilogy In the early 1950s, Catton published three books known collectively as the Army of the Potomac trilogy, a history of that army. For Mr. Lincoln's Army (1951), the first volume, Catton recounted the army's formation, the command of George B. McClellan, the Peninsula Campaign, the Northern Virginia Campaign, and the Battle of Antietam. For the second volume, Glory Road (1952), Catton recounted the army's history with new commanding generals, from the Battle of Fredericksburg to the Battle of Gettysburg. For his final volume of the trilogy, A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), Catton recounted the campaigns of Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia from 1864 to the end of the war during 1865. It was his first commercially successful work and it won both the Pulitzer Prize for History and a National Book Award for Nonfiction. The three volumes were reissued in 1984 as a single volume reprint, titled Bruce Catton's Civil War. Centennial History of the Civil War From 1961 to 1965, the Centennial of the Civil War was commemorated, and Catton published his Centennial History of the Civil War trilogy. Unlike his previous trilogy, these books emphasized not only military topics, but social, economic, and political topics as well. For the first volume, The Coming Fury (1961), Catton discussed the causes of the war, culminating in its first major combat operation, the First Battle of Bull Run. For the second volume, Terrible Swift Sword (1963), he discussed both sides as they mobilize for a massive war effort. The story continued through 1862, ending with McClellan's dismissal after the Battle of Antietam. For the third volume, Never Call Retreat (1965), the war continued through the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, and the bloody struggles of 1864 and 1865 before the final surrender. Ulysses S. Grant trilogy After the publication of Captain Sam Grant (1950) by historian and biographer Lloyd Lewis, Catton wrote the second and third volumes of this trilogy, making extensive use of Lewis's historical research, provided by his widow, Kathryn Lewis, who personally selected Catton to continue her husband's work. In Grant Moves South (1960), Catton discussed the increasing experience of Grant as a military commander, from victories at the Battle of Fort Henry and the Battle of Fort Donelson, to the Battle of Shiloh and the Vicksburg Campaign. In Grant Takes Command (1969), Catton discussed Grant's career from the Battle of Chattanooga (1863) through the 1864 Virginia campaigns against Robert E. Lee and the end of the war. Other Civil War books In addition to these three important trilogies, Catton wrote extensively about the Civil War throughout his career. In U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition (1954), Catton writes what many consider one of the best short biographies of the general. In Banners at Shenandoah: A Story of Sheridan's Fighting Cavalry (1955), Catton wrote for young people about Union cavalry commander Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley during 1864. This Hallowed Ground (1956) was an account of the war from the Union perspective. Upon its publication, it was widely considered the best single volume history of the Civil War, receiving a Fletcher Pratt Award from the Civil War Round Table of New York during 1957. In America Goes to War (1958), Catton made the case that the American Civil War was one of the first total wars. In The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (1960), Catton wrote the accompanying narrative to a book that included more than 800 paintings and period photographs (this book was republished without pictures in 2004 by Mariner Books as The Civil War, with an introduction by James M. McPherson). It received a speci.... Discover the Bruce Catton popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Bruce Catton books.

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  • This Hallowed Ground synopsis, comments

    This Hallowed Ground

    Bruce Catton

    A perfect introduction and "the best singlevolume treatment of the Civil War" (Chicago SunTimes) that captures the dramatic scope and intimate experience of that epic struggle...

  • Coming Fury, Volume 1 synopsis, comments

    Coming Fury, Volume 1

    Bruce Catton

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award! A thrilling, pageturning piece of writing that describes the forces conspiring to tear apart the United Stateswith the d...

  • The Myth of the Lost Cause synopsis, comments

    The Myth of the Lost Cause

    Edward H. Bonekemper

    History isn't always written by the winners...Twentyfirstcentury controversies over Confederate monuments attest to the enduring significance of our nineteenthcentury Civil War. As...

  • Terrible Swift Sword synopsis, comments

    Terrible Swift Sword

    Bruce Catton

    The second episode in this awardwinning trilogy impressively shows how the Union and Confederacy, slowly and inexorably, reconciled themselves to an allout waran epic struggle fo...

  • Soldier, Spy, Heroine synopsis, comments

    Soldier, Spy, Heroine

    Debra Ann Pawlak & Cheryl Bartlam du Bois

    The Story of the Woman Who Fooled the Yankees and Rebels Alike.As a child, Sarah Emma Edmonds dreamed of faraway places and adventure, often picturing herself as a man. When her ab...

  • Never Call Retreat synopsis, comments

    Never Call Retreat

    Bruce Catton

    "A magnificent stylist . . . a firstrate historian. Familiarity with subject matter resulting from many years of study and narrative talents exceeding those of any other Civil War ...

  • Last Days of the Civil War synopsis, comments

    Last Days of the Civil War

    Bruce Catton

    From the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awardwinning history A Stillness at Appomattox, an electrifying account of the end of the Civil WarGrant and Lee’s final maneuvers as four...

  • The Civil War synopsis, comments

    The Civil War

    Geoffrey C. Ward & Kenneth Burns

    Based on the celebrated PBS television series about the men and women who lived through the cataclysmic trial of our nationhoodthe complete text of the magisterial illustrated work...

  • Reflections on the Civil War synopsis, comments

    Reflections on the Civil War

    Bruce Catton

    Edited from tapes that the Pulitzer prizewinnng historian made before his death, this moving, informative book paints an intimate portrait of war. It's a chronicle of motives and...

  • A Stillness at Appomattox synopsis, comments

    A Stillness at Appomattox

    Bruce Catton

    PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER America's foremost Civil War historian recounts the final year of the Civil War in his final volume of the Army of the Potomac Tr...

  • Hymns of the Republic synopsis, comments

    Hymns of the Republic

    S. C. Gwynne

    From the New York Times bestselling and awardwinning author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell comes “a masterwork of history” (Lawrence Wright, author of God Save Texas),...