This Mighty Scourge Perspectives on the Civil War

by McPherson, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780195392425
• ISBN10: 0195392426
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The 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 such 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. "In This Mighty Scourge--a riveting collection of 16 masterfully written essays--James M. McPherson again demonstrates that he is our greatest historian of the war.... They stand as a remarkably elegant and clarifying narrative exploration of the most basic questions concerning the Civil War, issues over which scholars and activists still contend. This Mighty Scourge, in fact, is an exemplary exercise in the contribution a great historian and eloquent writer can make to a people's understanding of themselves." --The Los Angeles Times "It will seduce anyone, Civil War neophyte or fanatic, for its authority and judgments.... There is not a bad chapter in this book. This Mighty Scourge is a marvelous read from a master historian. Like all good history, what it makes you want to do is know more." --The Boston Globe

Author Biography

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He has published numerous volumes on the Civil War, including Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, which won the prestigious Lincoln Prize in 1998.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Slavery and the Coming of War
And the War Came	p. 3
Escape and Revolt in Black and White	p. 21
The Lost Cause Revisited
The Confederacy: A House Divided?	p. 43
Was the Best Defense a Good Offense? Jefferson Davis and Confederate Strategies	p. 51
The Saratoga That Wasn't: The Impact of Antietam Abroad	p. 65
To Conquer a Peace? Lee's Goals in the Gettysburg Campaign	p. 77
The Last Rebel: Jesse James	p. 87
Long-Legged Yankee Lies: The Lost Cause Textbook Crusade	p. 93
Architects of Victory
ôWe Stand by Each Other Alwaysö: Grant and Sherman	p. 109
The Hard Hand of War	p. 123
Unvexed to the Sea: Lincoln, Grant, and the Vicksburg Campaign	p. 131
Home Front and Battle Front
Brahmins at War	p. 145
ôSpend Much Time in Reading the Daily Papersö: The Pres and Army Morale in the Civil War	p. 155
No Peace Without Victory, 1861-1865	p. 167
To Remember That He Had Lived	p. 187
ôAs Commander-in-Chief I Have a Right to Take Any Measure Which May Best Subdue the Enemyö	p. 209
Notes	p. 223
Index	p. 253
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