Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America
Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America

Author: William E. Gienapp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-04-08

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0199857776

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In Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, historian William Gienapp provides a remarkably concise, up-to-date, and vibrant biography of the most revered figure in United States history. While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as sixteenth president of the United States. Students will see how Lincoln grew during his years in office, how he developed a keen aptitude for military strategy and displayed enormous skill in dealing with his generals, and how his war strategy evolved from a desire to preserve the Union to emancipation and total war. Gienapp shows how Lincoln's early years influenced his skills as commander-in-chief and demonstrates that, throughout the stresses of the war years, Lincoln's basic character shone through: his good will and fundamental decency, his remarkable self-confidence matched with genuine humility, his immunity to the passions and hatreds the war spawned, his extraordinary patience, and his timeless devotion. A former backwoodsman and country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln rose to become one of our greatest presidents. This biography offers a vivid account of Lincoln's dramatic ascension to the pinnacle of American history.

Abraham Lincoln and a Nation Worth Fighting for
Abraham Lincoln and a Nation Worth Fighting for

Author:

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780803289949

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The many sides of Abraham Lincoln?war leader, humorist, commander in chief, politician, and emancipator?are vividly depicted in this concise and fresh look at his presidential years. Pivotal events, decisions, and issues in Lincoln?s private and public life are scrutinized and explained clearly by noted historian James A. Rawley. During an innovative yet bloody era marked by mass communication, unheard-of national recognition and media attention, and the increasingly destructive uses of technology to wage war, Lincoln did all that he could to preserve the nation as a whole. Principles underpinning Lincoln?s actions and motivations as administrator and war leader included an abiding spirit of nationalism, which contrasted with the forces driving his immediate predecessors, and the encompassing power conferred upon him as commander in chief in wartime. Accessible and informative, Abraham Lincoln and a Nation Worth Fighting For is an engaging and valuable introduction to the career of one of our most memorable presidents.

The War Worth Fighting
The War Worth Fighting

Author: Stephen D. Engle

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0813055342

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This volume of original essays, featuring an all-star lineup of Civil War and Lincoln scholars, is aimed at general readers and students eager to learn more about the most current interpretations of the period and the man at the center of its history. The contributors examine how Lincoln actively and consciously managed the war—diplomatically, militarily, and in the realm of what we might now call public relations—and in doing so, reshaped and redefined the fundamental role of the president.

Rise to Greatness
Rise to Greatness

Author: David Von Drehle

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2012-10-30

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 080507970X

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"Von Drehle has chosen a critical year ('the most eventful year in American history' and the year Lincoln rose to greatness), done his homework, and written a spirited account."N"Publishers Weekly."

Our One Common Country
Our One Common Country

Author: James Conroy

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013-12-23

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1493004115

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Our One Common Country explores the most critical meeting of the Civil War. Given short shrift or overlooked by many historians, the Hampton Roads Conference of 1865 was a crucial turning point in the War between the States. In this well written and highly documented book, James B. Conroy describes in fascinating detail what happened when leaders from both sides came together to try to end the hostilities. The meeting was meant to end the fighting on peaceful terms. It failed, however, and the war dragged on for two more bloody, destructive months. Through meticulous research of both primary and secondary sources, Conroy tells the story of the doomed peace negotiations through the characters who lived it. With a fresh and immediate perspective, Our One Common Country offers a thrilling and eye-opening look into the inability of our nation’s leaders to find a peaceful solution. The failure of the Hamptons Roads Conference shaped the course of American history and the future of America’s wars to come.

Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln
Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln

Author: Josiah Gilbert Holland

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9780803273030

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Soon after the assassination of President Lincoln in April 1865, newspaper editor Josiah Gilbert Holland traveled to Illinois to talk with people who had known Abraham Lincoln "back when." In 1866 Holland published the earliest full-scale life of the fallen leader. A great popular success, Holland's biography introduced American readers who were hungry for personal information about Lincoln's early life to some of the most famous and enduring Lincoln stories. From Holland the reader learned about Lincoln making restitution for a ruined book, the railsplitter earning his first silver dollar, the millhorse's kick to his head, the wrestling match with Jack Armstrong. Holland relayed homey stories about the young Illinois legislator and lawyer and poignant ones about the president during the dark days of the Civil War. Holland was one of the earliest biographers of Lincoln to insist that Lincoln had always opposed slavery and had planned consistently for emancipation. Most debatable, from the viewpoint of some later historians, Holland demonstrated that Lincoln was "eminently a Christian President." To understand the sixteenth president and the making of his public image, it is necessary to begin with Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln. J. G. Holland (1819-1881) was editor-in-chief of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican and founder of Scribner's Monthly. Introducer Allen C. Guelzo is the author of The Crisis of the American Republic: A History of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. He is Grace F. Kea Professor of American History and chair of the History Department at Eastern College in Pennsylvania.

Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution
Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

Author: James M. McPherson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1992-06-04

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0199762708

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James McPherson has emerged as one of America's finest historians. Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times Book Review, called "history writing of the highest order." In that volume, McPherson gathered in the broad sweep of events, the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the Civil War era. Now, in Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, he offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on aspects of Lincoln and the war that have rarely been discussed in depth. McPherson again displays his keen insight and sterling prose as he examines several critical themes in American history. He looks closely at the President's role as Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, showing how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He explores the importance of Lincoln's great rhetorical skills, uncovering how--through parables and figurative language--he was uniquely able to communicate both the purpose of the war and a new meaning of liberty to the people of the North. In another section, McPherson examines the Civil War as a Second American Revolution, describing how the Republican Congress elected in 1860 passed an astonishing blitz of new laws (rivaling the first hundred days of the New Deal), and how the war not only destroyed the social structure of the old South, but radically altered the balance of power in America, ending 70 years of Southern power in the national government. The Civil War was the single most transforming and defining experience in American history, and Abraham Lincoln remains the most important figure in the pantheon of our mythology. These graceful essays, written by one of America's leading historians, offer fresh and unusual perspectives on both.

Writing the Gettysburg Address
Writing the Gettysburg Address

Author: Martin P. Johnson

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2015-04-10

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0700621121

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Four score and seven years ago . . . . Are any six words better known, of greater import, or from a more crucial moment in our nation’s history? And yet after 150 years the dramatic and surprising story of how Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address has never been fully told. Until now. Martin Johnson's remarkable work of historical and literary detection illuminates a speech, a man, and a moment in history that we thought we knew. Johnson guides readers on Lincoln’s emotional and intellectual journey to the speaker’s platform, revealing that Lincoln himself experienced writing the Gettysburg Address as an eventful process that was filled with the possibility of failure, but which he knew resulted finally in success beyond expectation. We listen as Lincoln talks with the cemetery designer about the ideals and aspirations behind the unprecedented cemetery project, look over Lincoln's shoulder as he rethinks and rewrites his speech on the very morning of the ceremony, and share his anxiety that he might not live up to the occasion. And then, at last, we stand with Lincoln at Gettysburg, when he created the words and image of an enduring and authentic legend. Writing the Gettysburg Address resolves the puzzles and problems that have shrouded the composition of Lincoln's most admired speech in mystery for fifteen decades. Johnson shows when Lincoln first started his speech, reveals the state of the document Lincoln brought to Gettysburg, traces the origin of the false story that Lincoln wrote his speech on the train, identifies the manuscript Lincoln held while speaking, and presents a new method for deciding what Lincoln’s audience actually heard him say. Ultimately, Johnson shows that the Gettysburg Address was a speech that grew and changed with each step of Lincoln's eventful journey to the podium. His two-minute speech made the battlefield and the cemetery into landmarks of the American imagination, but it was Lincoln’s own journey to Gettysburg that made the Gettysburg Address.

Inside the White House in War Times
Inside the White House in War Times

Author: William Osborn Stoddard

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780803292574

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Of the three secretaries who assisted President Abraham Lincoln?John G. Nicolay, John Hay, and William O. Stoddard?only Stoddard wrote an extended memoir about his time in the Executive Mansion. First published in 1890, the book vividly depicts the president?s agonizing reaction to the defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the difficulties encountered (and presented) by Mary Lincoln, the president?s relations with George B. McClellan and other generals, and the anxiety preceding the Merrimack?s epic battle with the Monitor. ø In 1866 Stoddard also penned thirteen ?White House Sketches? about his time in Lincoln?s service. Originally published in an obscure New York newspaper, these essays?never previously collected?supplement Stoddard?s memoir. Together the memoir and sketches provide an intimate look at the sixteenth president during a time of crisis.