WE HAVE THE WAR UPON US The Onset of the Civil War: November 1860- April 1861

The political jostling and missteps in the months leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 are covered in great depth. Andrew Garman gives an adequate performance of this complex and little known aspect of the Civil War. Cooper is unsparing in his assessments of the many characters involved; listeners may be most surprised at his view of Lincoln as an inflexible ideologue who refused to consider compromise with the slave-holding states. Garman's narration is deliberate, and his pace is measured, at times even slow. He changes his intonation slightly for most quotations but makes no effort at affecting any type of accent or unique voice for each person quoted. Nonetheless, he has enough variation in his voice to avoid being monotonous and offers a consistent reading. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2013]