Episode #295: My Bookcase {2}: Time Life Books

Back in the 1970's through the early 90's, Time-Life book series were, more often than not, the pinnacle of craftsmanship. The type of craftsmanship that you don't usually see, unless you're participating in a Kickstarter project where one of the pledge levels features a leather bound book cover, Gilded pages and other fine material that goes into a limited edition book, which is capped off with an exquisitely detailed/thoroughly research story of non-fiction or fiction.

I had first come across one of these series called "The Old West" when I was a middle school student (that's circa '76/'77), and of course what got me interested was the cool photos of dead people (saw a pic of scalped soldier, which is still seared in my memory banks 50+ years later). But what stood out to me to begin with was the leather cover/binding, because to a kid anything out of the ordinary was a must touch/see.

Fast forward to now, or rather, the early 90's. The early 90's version of me was dropping serious money on Time-Life music cassettes (yes, I know, I know), when I decided to pay attention to one of the inserts about their many book series. I'm a US Civil War buff, so two of the book series stood out to me: one was a repro series of Civil War memoirs (ultimately 32 volumes) called "Collectors Library of The Civil War", while the other was one of those leather bound US Civil War series called "US Civil War" (yes, not very original), which totaled 28 volumes.

I also have a very short series on True Crime (9 volumes), but the two mentioned above are the ones I'm most proud of, and they will be the focus of today's post. I would like to note that these three book series were my biggest outlay of funds for book purchasing, and in fact, the total outlay, conservatively speaking $1,400 in 1980's dollars, has not yet been matched by my 30+ years worth of book purchases since.

So without further ado, two brief synopses of my favorite Time-Life book series.

Something that was quite prevalent in the late 19th century, were memoirs written of wartime experiences, either directly (e.g. soldier, spy, military officer) or indirectly (e.g civilian on the home front or part of the rear command), so the book series "The Collector's Library of the Civil War" features diverse topics such as: 

The Citizen Soldier (both sides relied heavily on the military draft/volunteers);

Army life in a Black regiment (self-explanatory);

The capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond VA;

The book pictured on your right.

All of which were written by the actual participants to the topics in question. These are the kind of books that good historians thrive upon, as they can give one a more in-depth look at a particular event in history, which in this case is the US Civil War. This conflict affected a wide swath of people on so many levels that only by reading the various memoirs of those who participated can one truly appreciate the magnitude of this monumental conflict. 

I do want to note that I haven't read any of those books. These books are so well crafted that even 35+ years later, I'm still afraid to crack any of them open beyond a couple of inches for fear of somehow damaging them with my bad hands. But as many are want to say, one can never say never.

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This particular series is one that I've actually read all 27 volumes of (28th volume is the master index) from cover to cover back in the early 90's. 

It covers the entire US Civil War, from the events leading up to the Civil War (1st volume is called "Brother vs Brother"), and everything connected with the war itself: the various military campaigns in the various theaters of the war, such as the one picture to the right, which features the Rebels counter offensive in two different battles; the life of a typical soldier, the extensive involvement of civilians, and of course, the surrender and assassination. 

The articles/essays are expertly written with not a smidgen of bias to be found (which is a novel concept in today's journalism); are easily digestible/understandable to the average person who only has a smattering to zero knowledge about the Civil War; and are written in such a way that when you're done, they'll make want to search out more books on whatever topic that has piqued your curiosity.

Time-Life Books, when they were around (sold in 2003, and ended business in 2024), created a quality product that was basically sold directly as a subscription and is still highly desirable today. As an example, the Old West series I had mentioned at the beginning, I found for sale on Etsy for about $230. If you can find any of their book series, and they produced quite a lot in their many decades of existence, I highly recommend purchasing them, as they both a fascinating read and a research culture encyclopedia.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved