Battle Cry of Freedom The Civil War Era

by McPherson, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780195168952
• ISBN10: 019516895X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now featuring a new Afterword by the author, this handy paperback edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom is without question the definitive one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentousepisodes that preceded the Civil War including the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. From there it moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering by each side, the politics, and the personalities.Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict. The South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Unionfounded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war, slavery, and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America'sbloodiest conflict. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.

Author Biography

James M. McPherson is Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. His books include The Struggle for Equality, Marching Toward Freedom, and Ordeal by Fire.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction	xvii
Prologue: From the Halls of Montezuma	3	(3)
1. The United States at Midcentury	6	(41)
2. Mexico Will Poison Us	47	(31)
3. An Empire for Slavery	78	(39)
4. Slavery, Rum, and Romanism	117	(28)
5. The Crime Against Kansas	145	(25)
6. Mudsills and Greasy Mechanics for A. Lincoln	170	(32)
7. The Revolution of 1860	202	(32)
8. The Counterrevolution of 1861	234	(42)
9. Facing Both Ways: The Upper South's Dilemma	276	(32)
10. Amateurs Go to War	308	(31)
11. Farewell to the Ninety Days' War	339	(30)
12. Blockade and Beachhead: The Salt-Water War, 1861-1862	369	(23)
13. The River War in 1862	392	(36)
14. The Sinews of War	428	(26)
15. Billy Yank's Chickahominy Blues	454	(36)
16. We Must Free the Slaves or Be Ourselves Subdued	490	(21)
17. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny	511	(35)
18. John Bull's Virginia Reel	546	(22)
19. Three Rivers in Winter, 1862-1863	568	(23)
20. Fire in the Rear	591	(35)
21. Long Remember: The Summer of '63	626	(40)
22. Johnny Reb's Chattanooga Blues	666	(23)
23. When This Cruel War Is Over	689	(29)
24. If It Takes All Summer	718	(33)
25. After Four Years of Failure	751	(23)
26. We Are Going To Be Wiped Off the Earth	774	(33)
27. South Carolina Must Be Destroyed	807	(24)
28. We Are All Americans	831	(22)
Epilogue: To the Shoals of Victory	853	(10)
Afterword	863	(5)
Abbreviated Titles	868	(2)
Bibliographic Note	870	(18)
Index	888