GDG- Martin & Pfanz's books on Day 1 - a quick comparative study

[Tom Gilbert]

Alan, earlier today while I was at my office, I mentioned two books I had read on the Mexican War ("So Far From God" and "Mr. Polk's Army") .. I'm at home now, and I took a glance at my little library and found that I also have three others that I used for the Mexican War course I took (it was about 10 years ago) .. they are "Army of Manifest Destiny" by James M. McCaffrey, "The Story of the Mexican War" by Robert Seth Henry, and "The Mexican War, 1846-1848" by K. Jack Bauer .. all five books are reviewed (and available) at amazon.com if you want to take a look ..I really enjoyed that course, I took it as an elective in my Civil War Studies program, I was able to learn more about quite a few personalities that I had "met" over the years in my CW studies, plus it was an interesting glimpse of antebellum America .. and of course it helped fuel the fires that eventually led to civil war .. Tom Gilbert

Alan David Brunelle <Alan.Brunelle at hp.com> wrote:  Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:


Jim Lamason wrote:
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> Hi all , 
>
> Having read both books as well (Second edition of Martin as it has cleaned
> up the typos and bad spelling.) And having gotten to know Dr. Dave
> personally he is almost apologetic for the mistakes in the first edition.
> I prefer Martins for his detail. 
> 
I'm glad I bought the second edition!
> However because of that detail, and unless you have walked the ground a
> number of times, Martins is NOT in my opinion a good book for a "A
> beginner". Pfanz is a better book for the new person to the battle.
I agree - I had said something similar, though it is kind of buried in 
the middle:
> I have to admit, having done a lot of reading in this area prior to reading Martin must have given me a pretty decent background, and thus that may be why I was able to follow Martin as well as I could. I bet if someone picked this up the first time, even Martin's clear prose would be hard to swallow in one go.
I also think that I'm learning a natural progression to this - it is 
sort of "physics-like" in that you start out big, and work your way 
down. Basically, I've read (in order):

1. Some general pre-civil war books (biographies on the Adams (both), 
Jefferson, Franklin, and Andrew Jackson, as well as on the war of 1812, 
and a great one on the gag rule). I'd like to go back and find a good 
book on the Mexican War - I've started biographies on "Stonewall" and 
Grant's autobiography, and think that there may be some good background 
to get from reading a more detailed account of that war too.

2. Then read books that covered the whole era in one go (Nevin's "Ordeal 
of the Union", as well as McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" and 
Foote's series)

3. Then general Gettysburg books (Trudeau and Sears - and then Coddington)

4. Then Pfanz's three books

5. Now I'm working my way into more detailed analysis - like Martin 
provides, as well as Gettysburg Magazine and things such as that.

I totally agree that skipping to step 5 would be very hard for a "newbie".
> Good job Allan. May I add my kudos for your great breakdown and resulting
> review. 
> 
Thanks!
> Regards, 
> Jim Lamason 
>
> 
Respectfully yours,
Alan
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