"Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard 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 momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, 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 Union founded 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's bloodiest 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."
Editor's Introduction Prologue: From the Halls of Montezuma 1. The United States at Midcentury 2. Mexico Will Poison 3. An Empire for Slavery 4. Slavery, Rum, and Romanism 5. The Crime Against Kansas 6. Mudsills and Greasy Mechanics for A. Lincoln 7. The Revolution o f1860 8. The Counterrevolution 9. Facing Both Ways: The Upper South's Dilemma 10. Amateurs Go to War 11. Farewell to the Ninety Days' War 12. Blockade and Beachhead: The Salt-Water War, 1861-1862 13. The River War in 1862 14. The Sinews of War 15. Billy Yank's Chickahominy Blues 16. We Must Free the Slaves or Be Ourselves Subdued 17. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny 18. John Bull's Virginia Rell 19. Three Rivers in Winter, 1862-1863 20. Fire in the Rear 21. Long Remember: The Summer of '63 22. Johnny Reb's Chattanooga Blues 23. When This Cruel War is Over 24. If It Takes All Summer 25. After Four Years of Failure 26. We Are Going to be Wiped off the Earth 27. South Carolina Must Be Destroyed 28. We Are All Americans Epilogue: To the Shoals of VIctory Afterward Abbreviated Titles Bibliographic Note Index
James M. McPherson is Professor of History at Princeton University.
Reviews for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
With this major work, McPherson (History/Princeton; Ordeal by Fire) cements his reputation as one of the finest Civil War historians. The volume begins with a deft description of the ragged American army trudging into Mexico City in 1847. From there, the narrative speeds through 28 chapters that draw a precise and lively picture of what America and Americans were like in mid-19th century. McPherson delineates the issues that galvanized and divided the American public from the end of the Mexican War in 1848 to the opening of the Civil War in 1861, providing thorough explanations of the pre-war period's gravest crises - the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the prairie guerrilla war it started; the national clamor over the Dred Scott case; anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant violence and the brief life of the nativist Know-Nothing Party; and the panic over John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. And McPherson's coverage of the Civil War is just as strong and clear. The author also addresses arguments about the root origins or that war and pinpoints major causes: hatred of slavery and blind regional prejudice. What distinguishes McPherson's work is his fluid writing style and his able use of anecdote and human interest to flesh out his portrait of the times. Social history and verified gossip abound and are used to good effect: the 1851 racing victory of the US yacht America over 14 British vessels in the Royal Yacht Squadron became the talk of the sporting world and, also, heralded this nation's emergence as an industrial and technological force; talk of U.S. Grant's drinking problem and how he struggled to control it is shown to have shaped the general's personality in many positive ways; etc. McPherson also works in many bits of trivia that, while they may not be of historical import, make his treatment nearly effortless reading. This new volume in the Oxford History of the United States series should become a standard general history of the Civil War period - it's one that will stand up for years to come. (Kirkus Reviews)
- Winner of Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.
