More than 140 years ago, Mark Twain observed that the Civil War had uprooted institutions that were centuries old, changed the politics of a people, transformed the social life of half the country, and wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations.
In fact, five generations have passed, and Americans are still trying to measure the influence of the immense fratricidal conflict that nearly tore the nation apart. In The War that Forged a Nation, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson considers why the Civil War remains so deeply embedded in our national psyche and identity. The drama and tragedy of the war, from its scope and size-an estimated death toll of 750,000, far more than the rest of the country's wars combined-to the nearly mythical individuals involved-Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson-help explain why the Civil War remains a topic of interest. But the legacy of the war extends far beyond historical interest or scholarly attention.
Here, McPherson draws upon his work over the past fifty years to illuminate the war's continuing resonance across many dimensions of American life. Touching upon themes that include the war's causes and consequences; the naval war; slavery and its abolition; and Lincoln as commander in chief, McPherson ultimately proves the impossibility of understanding the issues of our own time unless we first understand their roots in the era of the Civil War. From racial inequality and conflict between the North and South to questions of state sovereignty or the role of government in social change-these issues, McPherson shows, are as salient and controversial today as they were in the 1860s.
Thoughtful, provocative, and authoritative, The War that Forged a Nation looks anew at the reasons America's civil war has remained a subject of intense interest for the past century and a half, and affirms the enduring relevance of the conflict for America today.
By:
James M. McPherson (Professor Emeritus Professor Emeritus Princeton University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 155mm,
Width: 236mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780199375776
ISBN 10: 0199375771
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 14 May 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Why the Civil War Still Matters ; 2. Mexico, California, and the Coming of the Civil War ; 3. A Just War? ; 4. Death and Destruction in the Civil War ; 5. American Navies and British Neutrality During the Civil War ; 6. The Rewards of Risk-Taking: Two Civil War Admirals ; 7. How Did Freedom Come? ; 8. Lincoln, Slavery, and Freedom ; 9. A. Lincoln, Commander in Chief ; 10. The Commander Who Would Not Fight: McClellan and Lincoln ; 11. Lincoln's Legacy for Our Time ; 12. War and Peace in the Post-Civil War South
James M. McPherson is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He is the author of many works of history, including Battle Cry of Freedom, which won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize.
Reviews for The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters
The finest single volume on the war and its background. * The Washington Post Book World * The best one-volume treatment of [the Civil War era] I have ever come across. It may actually be the best ever published.... I was swept away, feeling as if I had never heard the saga before.... Omitting nothing important, whether military, political, or economic, he yet manages to make everything he touches drive the narrative forward. This is historical writing of the highest order. * Hugh Brogan, The New York Times Book Review * Previous praise for Battle Cry of Freedom: Deftly coordinated, gracefully composed, charitably argued and suspensefully paid out, McPherson's book is just the compass of the tumultuous middle years of the 19th century it was intended to be, and as narrative history it is surpassing. Bright with details and fresh quotations, solid with carefully-arrived-at conclusions, it must surely be, of the 50,000 books written on the Civil War, the finest compression of that national paroxysm ever fitted between two covers. * Los Angeles Times Book Review *
