Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t – Jim Collins

Lessons from companies who made the transition from good to great

Great companies, in terms of sales, revenue, and stock returns are easy to identify. Every once in a while a company will jump up, seemingly out of the blue, and captivate the business world, only to crash and burn or return to average after a short time. A few companies, however, have been able to make a transition from good/average (or even below average) to great. This book is an analysis of 11 companies that made this transition and goes into detail about the things that each company did or had in common when they made the jump.

Not your average business book

I don’t read many books on business, sales, or marketing. It’s not really an area of interest for me. But this book came highly recommended from someone so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m glad I did, because while I’m not interested in becoming a corporate executive, there are quite a few lessons that you can draw out of this book that are applicable to just about everyone.

In case you’re wondering what benchmarks the author and his research team used to define a good to great company, this is it: a company who performed roughly at average on their stock market price for at least 10 years, followed by 15 years of sustained growth that resulted in posting returns 3 times greater than those in their industry and in the general market. Pretty hard standards and parameters to reach, which is why only 11 companies met them out of the thousands available.

Important note: This book was written in 1999 and published in 2000, so the data is from the decades leading up to the year 2000. Keep that in mind while reading.

Themes/Topics

The Hedgehog Concept – a simple, clear concept that flows from a deep understanding of the way the following three areas intersect:

What can you be the best in the world at?
What drives your economic engine?
What are you deeply passionate about?

In other words, think about what you can truly be the best at in your area, region, niche. Conversely, think about what you cannot be the best at and use both of these as a discerning guide to direct your company (and your career). Figure out what you can do to provide for your financial needs. Last, but not least, think about what you’re passionate about. It’s difficult to stay focused and be successful in a business or career if you don’t care about what you’re doing. Where these things intersect/overlap is the sweet spot of the Hedgehog concept. Stick with this and brush off the rest.

Level 5 Leadership – interestingly, the top level leadership showed similar characteristics in the good to great companies. There seems to be a collection of personality traits that makes for a very successful leader, though these traits are quite different than the image most of us have of what a successful CEO looks like. Here’s a list of those traits and comparisons.

Humble – willing to accept personal responsibility for the company’s failures and also quick to give credit to the team for any successes. Team>me. Compelling modesty.
Quiet, hardworking, obsessively focused and dedicated – leads by example
Operates by the “Stockdale paradox” – consistent faith that they will succeed (optimism) while still wanting to face the brutal facts of reality (realistic).
Consistent and steady, but willing to embrace change if it can help fulfill the long term goals. Not interested in fads and/or technology, unless the technology can help them focus on their goals/Hedgehog Concept.
Not just “get the right people on the bus” but “get the right people in the right positions on the bus” mentality.
“First who, then what” – find the best people to hire, then find the best fit for those people. No compromises in that regard. Trim out those who aren’t the right people immediately.
Seek quiet understanding, not bravado. Charismatic leaders often are level 4 and why companies often can’t sustain success, because it’s all about the leader, not the culture of the company.
Fanatically driven by the need to produce results. Not afraid to make hard decisions.
Don’t let their egos get in the way – Humble and fearless – they don’t need to be the Alpha male or biggest dog in the company. Their leadership style often cuts against the grain of the belief that larger than life CEOs are what’s needed to transform companies.
Usually come from within the company – understand the culture but also understand what isn’t working and what needs to change to become great.

Importance of Discipline – great companies have a culture of discipline built in. Some leaders are able to instill discipline through a heavy-handed, tyrannical approach, but that is unsustainable and usually backfires eventually. To build a culture of discipline requires a deep understanding that if you have the right people in the right positions on the bus, then you don’t need to resort to the common external motivation methods that many companies use. Great companies (and leaders) avoid bureaucracy and hierarchy and instead create a culture of discipline. Internally motivated people don’t need to be “managed” and meetings become far less important or necessary. Creativity suffers under heavy management and so does productivity. Self-disciplined employees don’t need micromanaging, they run from it.

Recommendation

This was a bit longer of a review than I normally do, but I thought it was important to show that the lessons in this book are more than just “how to increase your corporate earnings.” Many of the ideas and lessons can be applied on a personal level – how to be a good leader, how to have a meaningful career, how to make the most out of life. In the end, it was because of these factors that I decided to include Good to Great in this blog and give it the “recommended” stamp of approval.

You can find the book on Amazon here.

The “Ultimate List” of books you should read before you die

If you’re looking for ideas on fiction novels to read, you can start by going through this fantastic compilation on Medium called “100 Books to Read before You Die: Creating the Ultimate List.” The author of that post, Joel Patrick, did some significant work analyzing multiple “Top 100” lists by various organizations. Do yourself a favor and check it out. I’m going to only list the books and authors here, but not the rest. I don’t want to plagerize, only to use it for comparison purposes since this blog has already reviewed some of the books included in this list (and will have reviews coming soon on books that are in this list). Please visit the article above and check out the author’s notes on each book.

The Ultimate List: 100 Books to Read before You Die

Again, here’s the link to the article that put together this list – https://medium.com/world-literature/creating-the-ultimate-list-100-books-to-read-before-you-die-45f1b722b2e5

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Ulysses by James Joyce
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1984 by George Orwell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
A Passage to India by EM Forster
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Little Women by Louisa M Alcott
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Atonement by Ian McEwan
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
A Dance to The Music of Time by Anthony Powell
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Under The Net by Iris Murdoch
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Trial by Franz Kafka
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Money by Martin Amis
Oscar And Lucinda by Peter Carey
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Watchmen by Alan Moore
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Closing Thoughts

I’ve had quite a few of these on my wish list for some time now. Some I have read, like Ulysses by James Joyce, that I didn’t particularly enjoy and therefore won’t review on this blog. Some, like On The Road by Jack Kerouac, were okay, but they didn’t really click with me personally and I don’t know if I’d recommend/think that people should read them. Others, I have read but have yet to complete a review on them. I’m very thankful to Joel Patrick for putting this list together. I’ll definitely be using it for selecting future fiction books for my personal reading.

Is there a book on here that surprises you? What’s your favorite from this list?

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

book cover aldous huxley brave new world

A dystopian novel about an “ideal” society gone wrong

Dystopian books and movies are very common now, but that wasn’t the case when Aldous Huxley published Brave New World in 1932. The author imagines what a futuristic society could be like where science has taken a strange turn and humans are genetically modified and conditioned to fit into pre-determined roles in society. It is a profound book considering the time it was written, prior to WWII, with fascism, communism, and other authoritarian governments on the rise. This book pokes at those governments and also people with utopian beliefs about capitalism, consumption, and materialism.

I found the following G.K. Chesterton quote interesting. It is from his review of the book.

After the Age of Utopias came what we may call the American Age, lasting as long as the Boom. Men like Ford or Mond seemed to many to have solved the social riddle and made capitalism the common good. But it was not native to us; it went with a buoyant, not to say blatant optimism, which is not our negligent or negative optimism. Much more than Victorian righteousness, or even Victorian self-righteousness, that optimism has driven people into pessimism. For the Slump brought even more disillusionment than the War. A new bitterness, and a new bewilderment, ran through all social life, and was reflected in all literature and art. It was contemptuous, not only of the old Capitalism, but of the old Socialism. Brave New World is more of a revolution against Utopia than against Victoria.
G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News, 4 May 1935

Science fiction and fantasy genres can take a big gamble when trying to predict future technological advances. While some parts of the book aren’t possible based on what we know now about science, other parts are chilling at how accurate Huxley was in his predictions. He also had a clear grasp of how propaganda can be used to control the population. It’s the same basic blueprint that all dictators use.

Themes

Nature vs Nurture – while the science isn’t 100% accurate in this book, the author does do a good job of highlighting the different ways that our genetics and environment affect how we develop and interact in society.

Freedom vs Security – what is the most important thing in society? In the “Community, Identity, Stability” slogan of the futuristic world government, security and stability come at the cost of a loss of freedom. In a technical sense, people are still able to make choices, but most of their lives have been decided for them.

Hedonism – is true happiness found in the pursuit of the maximum amount of pleasure? Is the goal of life to be constantly stimulated in every way, without time to think, reflect, or re-evaluate what we’re doing or why we’re doing it? This book is at least partly a satirical take on the promise of utopia through materialism and capitalism.

Recommendation

I liked this book more than I thought I would. It’s an easy read. The main suggestion I have is that it’s best to read this book in a more lighthearted manner. It is poking fun at a few things that people at that time were claiming to be the next savior of humanity – socialism, capitalism, hedonism and even science. But it also rings true in our era as we are still grappling with these questions and issues.

On the negative side, there are some plot holes and lack of character development that may annoy some readers. My biggest complaint is the ending. I was disappointed that he chose to end the book the way he did.

Overall, I think this is an interesting book and definitely recommend it.

Find the book on Amazon here.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel van der Kolk

Exploring the neuroscience of the brain-body connection in mental health

In “The Body Keeps the Score”, Dr Bessel van der Kolk shares what he’s learned as a researcher and mental health professional in caring for patients who have experienced trauma. The author covers the medical history of how we have treated those dealing with mental health conditions, what we’ve learned along the way, and he shares many patient stories that help to illustrate the topic.

“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably
the single most important aspect of mental health;
safe connections are fundamental to
meaningful and satisfying lives.”

“Neuroscience research shows that
the only way we can change the way we feel
is by becoming aware of our inner experience
and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves.”
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. https://besselvanderkolk.net/index.html

Trigger warning: this book doesn’t go into graphic detail, but it does cover topics that may be disturbing to some readers who have experienced trauma. For example, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are discussed, as is addiction and self-harm.

Topics Discussed

Adverse Childhood Experiences – also known as ACEs and discussed in a previously reviewed book Supernormal – are traumatic events or lived experience of abuse and neglect throughout childhood. The higher your ACE score, the more likely you are to develop chronic conditions (mental and physical) later in life. Dr van der Kolk pays special attention to how this relates to psychiatric diseases like PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

The Science of Trauma – Dr. van der Kolk goes over the history of how our understanding of trauma has changed over the years, including the neuroscience of how the brain processes threats, danger, abuse, and trauma. The development of advanced imaging techniques (fMRI and PET scans) has allowed scientists to see which parts of the brain are over or underactive during various mental states.

Treatment Options For Psychiatric Disorders

Talk Therapy – the ability to talk about our experiences and problems has been shown to help many people. Perhaps the more studied of these is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but there are many others that are covered in the book.

Yoga – connecting with your bodily senses in a meaningful way is what yoga is all about. This is a way to integrate physical activity into healing the mind.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – this type of therapy uses eye movement while processing negative events from your life (trauma) and the feelings and emotions connected to it.

Internal Family Systems – also known as Self Leadership, is a system of therapy that helps you to look at how your conscious mind is a collection of sub-personalities. IFS can be used to evaluate each perspective/personality in the system and address negative, harmful, overly critical, or violent ones. (I didn’t do a very good job of explaining it here, which is why you should read the chapter about it!)

Neurofeedback – this type of treatment uses electrodes on your head to detect the electrical signals happening in your brain. With these on, the patient then goes through guided imagery to learn how to engage parts of the brain that are helpful for focusing attention, calming anxiety, and processing emotions.

Recommendation

This is a really, really important book that I highly recommend. I appreciate how the author explains the science and research while mixing in patient stories to help illustrate the concepts and topics. Some of the patient stories were too painful for me to read and I’m guessing that anyone with a history of trauma or abuse may have a similar experience. I especially recommend this book to anyone who works in healthcare and for those who have friends or family that have experienced trauma.

You can find the book on Amazon here. Click this link to go to the author’s website.

The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery – Ian Cron

This isn’t your typical self-help psychology book

The Road Back To You – by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile, is a really helpful and informative book. The concept of the Enneagram is complex and intricate but the authors present the information in a very practical and relatable manner. Their goal isn’t to teach you some new ideas, but to help you identify parts of your personality that you maybe have never considered. They don’t leave it at that though. They also show you things that you can do to “do the work” of soul searching and making improvements in those difficult areas of your life. Continue reading “The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery – Ian Cron” →

The Revenant – Michael Punke

A page-turning story of adventure and revenge

The Revenant is an against-all-odds story based on actual events. I will start this post by saying that I haven’t seen the film adaptation of this book, so I can’t speak to how faithful it is to the book, characters, or plot. This review is only for the book. I’m one of those weirdos that generally prefer books instead of the movie versions.

The setting is the early 1800’s in the American great plains and the protagonist is Hugh Glass, a complicated character with a wild past. It’s important to note that this is a work of historical fiction. Some things are known about the real-life Hugh, but this is a novel, not a historical biography.

What is a revenant?

In folklore, a revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that is believed to have revived from death to haunt the living.
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenant

Themes

Frontier life – Living on the American frontier was incredibly dangerous. It could be hard to find work, make a living, and stay alive in that part of the wild west. You have to make do with what you have and stay safe from warring tribes and wild animals.

The limits of the human spirit – The author states that this is a novel about revenge, but it is more than that. It’s a story about the almost impossible things people can endure to stay alive. What drives you? What makes you tick? What does justice look like to you and what are you willing to do to get it?

Adventure and discovery – The thrill of exploring new places, finding treasures, taming the wild, surviving encounters with bears, the suspense of will-he-make-it-or-not, it’s all in here.

Recommendation

I usually stay away from the historical fiction genre. I find the genre often isn’t as compelling from a story perspective compared to novels and it lacks authenticity compared with (nonfiction) history books. But this was a nice change of pace book that I couldn’t put down. It flows well and brought up some deeper questions for me to consider.

You can find the book on Amazon here. Here’s a link to an article that compares the movie version to what we know about the real Hugh Glass and the events in his life.

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

The teenage angst coming of age anthem

Did you have a period in your life, perhaps during your teenage years, where you rebelled against the superficiality of society and the hypocrites who are often in positions of authority? If so, you’ll likely strongly relate to Holden Caulfield, the angst-filled protagonist in “The Catcher in the Rye.” This classic book by J.D. Salinger, set in the late 1940s, is often listed as one of the most important English novels. It is also one of the most challenged and censored books of all time.

Themes

Teenage angst – Holden is a conflicted teenager, filled with angst at the world, its institutions, and those in authority. He has a rebellious streak that often gets him in trouble and he struggles with trying to keep it all together.

Loss of innocence – In some ways, this is a coming-of-age story where Holden is mourning the loss of innocence during his transition to adulthood. It is a source of anger and frustration.

Identity – Tied in with the above, Holden is struggling to find his own identity. He struggles with authority figures, he struggles to fit in with his peers, he struggles with being isolated.

Recommendation

I never read this book as a teenager. It’s a shame because I know I would have loved it. I can see why so many people list it as one of their favorite books of all time. Holden Caulfield is the poster child for teenage rebellion and angst. He is deeply flawed and conflicted. You can feel it in this book. It is raw and obscene. That’s largely why so many people have tried to get it banned. It makes some people very uncomfortable.

I think it is an important book and I do recommend it. Be warned that there is a good amount of profanity in this book, in case that’s a deal breaker for you. It might take you a bit to catch up with the slang terms that Holden uses. If you are unfamiliar with it, Wikipedia has a list of common phrases in the book and what they mean.

Here’s a link to the book on Amazon.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain – Oliver Sacks

Science meets art, neurology meets music in this fun book

Are you the type of person to carry a tune around in their head wherever you go? Some people are good at visual imagery, I have a very vivid auditory/musical mind. Dr Sacks is the author of some great books, but this one is my favorite from him because I am also a lover of music. Music is almost magical to me. It has the power to move us in a deep way that is beyond words. It even has healing power. The author explores this and much more in Musicophilia.

Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does–humans are a musical species.
From Dr Sack’s official website – https://www.oliversacks.com/books-by-oliver-sacks/musicophilia/

Topics

Case Studies – The author covers cases studies of musical savants as well as things he has learned from many of his own patients over the years. He shares stories of how music is used as a tool for therapy and healing and stories of the blessings and curses of expert musical ability. He was there during the beginnings of music therapy and speaks to how it can help patients with a variety of conditions.

Humans are a musical species – Dr Sacks explains some of the theories out there about the origin of language and makes a case that music came before language, not the other way around. Why does music play such a major role in almost every documented culture? What is it in us that is drawn to music, rhythm, and how it draws people together.

Musical hallucinations – I never had heard of this, but it is very much a real phenomenon and it is underreported. People who once were able to hear but have since become deaf often develop musical hallucinations. The same is true for blind people experiencing visual hallucinations. The neuroscience behind it is interesting, though it does make some folks question their sanity, even though there’s a perfectly good explanation for it.

Pathology – Dr Sacks also covers more rare disorders like amusica. Some people are unable to differentiate between tones, rhythms, melodies. This can be congenital or acquired (stroke, head injury, illness). Absolute pitch is much more common in populations that have a tonal language (like Mandarin) and for people who are blind.

Recommendation

If you are a music lover who is interested in learning more about the science behind it and how it can go right (and wrong), you should check this out. While reading this book, I went on a deep rabbit trail in checking out the musical savants listed in this book. It’s so fascinating to me. Dr Sacks has a unique writing style and can tend to ramble on a bit in some of his books (not to mention excessive footnotes!), but I really enjoyed all of that in Musicophilia.

To Learn More

You can find the book on Amazon here. You can find out more about Dr Oliver Sacks on his website. You can learn more about the NOVA production that features a few of the case studies in this book here.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer

robin wall kimmerer braiding sweetgrass book

Equal parts memoir, science book, and essays about Native American wisdom

Braiding Sweetgrass is a really unique book. Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author, weaves together the knowledge and wisdom she’s gained as a scientist, professor, mother, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. It might help to view this book as a series of essays on different topics. There are certain themes that tie everything together, but each chapter has its own narrative, structure, and topics. This is a fascinating book that is very informative and calls you to join in instead of lecturing you about topics.

Themes

Indigenous culture – Dr Kimmerer speaks from a place of identity with her dual citizenship, American and Potawatomi worlds as they collide and intersect. She shares the deep wisdom traditions of many tribes who are native to the Americas, long before the conquistadors and colonizers showed up.

Persecution and genocide – She takes a deep look at what really happened in our history as a country and the treatment of the Indigenous people as the United States expanded and grew.

Nature – Dr Kimmerer explains in several areas just how much we can learn from nature if we would just slow down and listen. She shares scientific insights about the biology of plants and how we can take these scientific principles and apply them to our daily life.

Mindfulness – Our busy American culture is often so preoccupied with jumping from task to task that we rarely have the chance to slow down and think about what we’re doing and why. Part of the wisdom from Indigenous people is being more mindful about how we interact with the earth and each other. Are we caught up in consumer culture? Do we realize the impact this has on our environment, our bodies, and our minds? Can we slow down and practice gratitude and thankfulness? What do we do with the tension between honoring life and consuming it for our benefit?

Recommendation

If you are interested in botany, biology, gardening, and connecting with nature, I think you’ll be delighted with this book. The science nerd part of me loved those chapters. If you would like to learn more about the true history of how Native Americans were treated in the US, you will find this book informative and also heartbreaking. If you enjoy memoirs and storytelling, Braiding Sweetgrass will full your cup with her stories of growing up, balancing between 2 cultures, raising a family, and pursuing a career while discovering her identity all over again.

This is a powerful book. It has the power to change your perspective. I know it helped to change mine. Check it out and let me know what you think.

You can find the book on Amazon here.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era – James McPherson

The best book about the American Civil War

If you’re ready to take the plunge and get the fullest account of the events leading up to, during, and after the Civil War, then this is the best book there is. James McPherson won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1988 with “Battle Cry of Freedom” and it has been updated with illustrations in subsequent editions since then. What were the causes of the war? Who were the leading figures? What were things like in politics at that time? If you’ve ever wondered on these things and felt that history class in high school skipped over some parts, you’ll find the answers here.

Think that’s a little heavy on the acclaim? Here’s a quote from one reviewer:

It is the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across. It may actually be the best ever published. It is comprehensive yet succinct, scholarly without being pedantic, eloquent but unrhetorical. It is compellingly readable. I was swept away, feeling as if I had never heard the saga before. It is most welcome.
Hugh Brogan, NYTimes review – https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/mcpherson-freedom.html

Topics Covered

Notable people – Quotes, sections from journals, and in-depth information on all the main political and military figures, as well as detailed background info on people who are often overlooked. Lincoln, Generals Grant, Sherman, and McClellan on the Union side and Generals Lee, Jackson, and Forrest on the Confederacy all have center stage at various times.

Important events leading up to the war – How the Mexican American war brought about events to come. The passage of the Fugitive Slave law and other polarizing legislation on the topics of slavery and “freedoms.” The creation of the new Republican party. Threats of secession in the face of legislation that would limit slavery. Reluctant abolitionists and conflicted slaveholders, it’s all in there.

Major battles – Fort Sumter, Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Atlanta are all covered, as well as the lesser known but very important battles that shaped the outcome of the war.

Slavery – Yes, the war was about slavery. Multiple quotes from Confederate leaders clearly show that they viewed slavery as the pillar of their culture and their God-given right. White supremacy in all its ugliness is revealed time and time again in the horrific treatment of African slaves and attempts to expand slavery and even to restart the Atlantic slave trade. The Union leaders don’t get a free pass though, as they are often guilty of horrible abuses as well. It’s an ugly time in our history that we tend to gloss over.

Recommendation

I know the size of this book will turn some people away. Even the edited, abridged version has over 700 pages! But please, please, don’t let that be a deal breaker. This doesn’t read like a textbook, though it is incredibly informative. This is a remarkable book and the author has done a fantastic job in making the subject come alive. If you like history books, you’ll really enjoy this. Trust me on this one.

Here’s a link to the illustrated version on Amazon.