Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

by James M. McPherson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195168952
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2003
Series:	Oxford History of the United States Series
Pages:	936
Sales rank:	26,994
Product dimensions:	6.34(w) x 9.22(h) x 1.63(d)
Lexile:	1320L (what's this?)

About the Author

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.

Hometown:

Princeton, New Jersey

Date of Birth:

October 11, 1936

Place of Birth:

Valley City, North Dakota

Education:

B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, MN) 1958; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1963

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

"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

"Immediately takes its place as the best one-volume history of the coming of the American Civil War and the war itself. It is a superb narrative history, elegantly written.—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Matchless.... The book's political and economic discussions are as engrossing as the descriptions of military campaigns and personalities."—Library Journal

"McPherson cements his reputation as one of the finest Civil War historians....Should become a standard general history of the Civil War period—it's one that will stand up for years to come."—Kirkus Reviews

"Robust, glittering history."—Booklist

"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, New York Times Book Review

"The finest single volume on the war and its background."—The Washington Post Book World

From the Publisher

Likely to become the standard one-volume history of our Civil War, this vivifies, with palpable immediacy, scholarly acumen and interpretive skill, events foreshadowing the conflict, the war itself and its basic issue: slavery. Photos. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"Historical writing of the highest order." -- New York Times Book Review

Hugh Brogan

"Surely...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

"The finest single volume on the war and its background." -- The Washington Post Book World

Washington Post Book World

Picking up in the spring of 1862, where Volume 1 left off, McPherson's Civil War history continues to highlight his mastery of the subject. This volume helpfully provides a quick synopsis of what has happened thus far. This installment finds the North and South fully involved in the tumultuous war. Once again, narrator Jonathan Davis's serious tone reflects exactly the grave events that took place at this time in American history. Davis appropriately portrays the weightiness of the material and, in combination with McPherson's award-winning prose, evokes a time long past most eloquently and accessibly. M.R.P. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile