Synopses & Reviews
The first graphic history to capture the full scope of the Civil War, gorgeously drawn and expertly told
The graphic novelist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and the award-winning historian Ari Kelman team up to create a unique portrait of a brutal and defining event in American history: the Civil War. The result is Battle Lines, a monumental graphic history—rendered in Fetter-Vorms sweeping full-color panoramas, and grounded in Kelmans nuanced understanding of the period—offering a series of wholly new perspectives on the conflict that turned this nation against itself.
Each chapter in Battle Lines begins with an object; each object tells its own story. A tattered flag, lowered in defeat at Fort Sumter. A set of chains, locked to the ankles of a slave as he scrambles toward freedom. A bullet, launched from the bore of a terrifying new rifle. A brick, hurled from a crowd of ration-starved rioters. With these objects and others, both iconic and commonplace, Battle Lines traces a broad and ambitious narrative from the early rumblings of secession to the dark years of Reconstruction. Richly detailed and wildly inventive, its stories propel the reader to all manner of unlikely vantages as only the graphic form can: from the malaria-filled gut of a mosquito to the faded ink of a soldiers pen, and from the barren farms of the home front to the front lines of an infantry charge.
Beautiful, uncompromising, poignant, and utterly original, Battle Lines is a daring vision of the war that nearly tore America apart.
Review
Praise for Jonathan Fetter-Vorms
Trinity“Illuminates a turning point in human history, and does so with admirable pace, grace, and skill.” —Boing Boing
“Concise and beautiful . . . A fine testament to the power of graphic storytelling in serious nonfiction.” —Brain Pickings
“Remarkably accessible—and frankly, beautiful.” —ScienceNews
Review
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Battle Lines brings us the Civil War as weve never seen it before. An inspired blend of images and words, this fresh, vivid history is the perfect primer for students and devotees of Americas greatest conflict.”
—Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic and Midnight Rising
“Battle Lines is the best film about the Civil War that has never been made. It is a penetrating account of the war's deepest dramas, told in the fewest words imaginable. It is history as poetry.”—Stephen Kantrowitz, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of More Than Freedom
“Featuring inspired storytelling and haunting images, Battle Lines is the best graphic novel ever produced about the Civil War.”—Josh Neufeld, author of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
“Battle Lines is thoughtful, sophisticated, and beautifully wrought. Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman offer further proof that the graphic novel is a powerful medium for exploring the nuances of history.”
—Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese, finalist for the National Book Award Praise for Jonathan Fetter-Vorms Trinity
“Illuminates a turning point in human history, and does so with admirable pace, grace, and skill.” —Boing Boing
“Concise and beautiful . . . A fine testament to the power of graphic storytelling in serious nonfiction.” —Brain Pickings
“Remarkably accessible—and frankly, beautiful.” —ScienceNews
Synopsis
Featuring breathtaking panoramas and revelatory, unforgettable images, Battle Lines is an utterly original graphic history of the Civil War. A collaboration between the award-winning historian Ari Kelman and the acclaimed graphic novelist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, Battle Lines showcases various objects from the conflict (a tattered American flag from Fort Sumter, a pair of opera glasses, a bullet, an inkwell, and more), along with a cast of soldiers, farmers, slaves, and well-known figures, to trace an ambitious narrative that extends from the early rumblings of secession to the dark years of Reconstruction. Employing a bold graphic form to illuminate the complex history of this period, Kelman and Fetter-Vorm take the reader from the barren farms of the home front all the way to the front lines of an infantry charge. A daring presentation of the war that nearly tore America apart, Battle Lines is a monumental achievement.
About the Author
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm is an author and illustrator. His Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb was selected by the American Library Association as a Best Graphic Novel for Teens in 2013. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Ari Kelman is the McCabe Greer Professor of the Civil War Era at Penn State University and the author of A River and Its City and A Misplaced Massacre, winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award. He is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and has written for The Nation, Slate, and The Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons.