This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil WarThe author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom and the New York Times bestsellers Crossroads of Freedom and Tried by War, among many other award-winning books, James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. In this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history. McPherson sheds light on topics large and small, from the average soldier's avid love of newspapers to the postwar creation of the mystique of a Lost Cause in the South. Readers will find insightful pieces on such intriguing figures as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Jesse James, and William Tecumseh Sherman, and on such vital issues as Confederate military strategy, the failure of peace negotiations to end the war, and the realities and myths of the Confederacy. This Mighty Scourge includes several never-before-published essays--pieces on General Robert E. Lee's goals in the Gettysburg campaign, on Lincoln and Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, and on Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. All of the essays have been updated and revised to give the volume greater thematic coherence and continuity, so that it can be read in sequence as an interpretive history of the war and its meaning for America and the world. Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, and packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... fought solely for “the inalienable right of a people to change their government ... to withdraw from a Union into which they had, as sovereign communities, voluntarily entered.” The “existence of African servitude,” he maintained, “was ...
... fought solely for “the inalienable right of a people to change their government ... to withdraw from a Union into which they had, as sovereign communities, voluntarily entered.” The “existence of African servitude,” he maintained, “was ...
Page 5
... fought not only for the constitutional principle of state's rights and self-government but also for the preservation of a stable, pastoral, agrarian civilization against the overbearing, acquisitive, aggressive ambitions of an urban ...
... fought not only for the constitutional principle of state's rights and self-government but also for the preservation of a stable, pastoral, agrarian civilization against the overbearing, acquisitive, aggressive ambitions of an urban ...
Page 9
... fought for the principle of state sovereignty, voted with enthusiasm for the Fugitive Slave Law. When Northern legislatures invoked their states' rights against this federal law, the Supreme Court with its majority of Southern justices ...
... fought for the principle of state sovereignty, voted with enthusiasm for the Fugitive Slave Law. When Northern legislatures invoked their states' rights against this federal law, the Supreme Court with its majority of Southern justices ...
Page 10
... fought over issues of the tariff or banks or agrarianism vs. industrialism. These and similar kinds of questions have been bread-and-butter issues of American politics throughout the nation's history, often generating a great deal more ...
... fought over issues of the tariff or banks or agrarianism vs. industrialism. These and similar kinds of questions have been bread-and-butter issues of American politics throughout the nation's history, often generating a great deal more ...
Page 12
... fought for the Confederacy. His much-loved grandmother was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In his dormitory room at a prep school in Virginia he proudly hung a Confederate flag. And he knew “that the South had ...
... fought for the Confederacy. His much-loved grandmother was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In his dormitory room at a prep school in Virginia he proudly hung a Confederate flag. And he knew “that the South had ...
Contents
THE LOST CAUSE REVISITED | 41 |
ARCHITECTS OF VICTORY | 107 |
HOME FRONT AND BATTLE FRONT | 143 |
LINCOLN | 185 |
Notes | 223 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Adams American American Civil War Ann Rutledge Antietam antislavery Army of Northern attack Basler battle biography campaign capture Charles Charles Francis Adams Civil command Confeder Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate Veterans Congress Constitution Copperhead Davis’s declared defeat defensive Democrats Diary election emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy Federal Fehrenbacher fighting forces fought Gettysburg Grant Greeley Halleck Harriet Harriet Tubman Henry Herndon historians Ibid James Jefferson Davis Jesse John Brown July later Lee’s army letter Lowell March Maryland Massachusetts McClellan McClernand military Mississippi Missouri negotiations newspapers North Northern Virginia officers Papers peace political Potomac president Proclamation quoted raid rebels regiment Republican Richmond River secession Seven Days battles Seward Sherman slavery slaves South Carolina Southern strategy Tennessee territory theater tion troops Tubman Union armies Union soldiers United Vicksburg victory vols Washington William Wilson words wrote Yankee York York Tribune