Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil WarOxford University Press, 1996 M04 18 - 272 páginas James M. McPherson is acclaimed as one of the finest historians writing today and a preeminent commentator on the Civil War. Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of that conflict, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." Now, in Drawn With the Sword, McPherson offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on some of the most enduring questions of the Civil War, written in the masterful prose that has become his trademark. Filled with fresh interpretations, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Drawn With the Sword explores such questions as why the North won and why the South lost (emphasizing the role of contingency in the Northern victory), whether Southern or Northern aggression began the war, and who really freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln or the slaves themselves. McPherson offers memorable portraits of the great leaders who people the landscape of the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, struggling to write his memoirs with the same courage and determination that marked his successes on the battlefield; Robert E. Lee, a brilliant general and a true gentleman, yet still a product of his time and place; and Abraham Lincoln, the leader and orator whose mythical figure still looms large over our cultural landscape. And McPherson discusses often-ignored issues such as the development of the Civil War into a modern "total war" against both soldiers and civilians, and the international impact of the American Civil War in advancing the cause of republicanism and democracy in countries from Brazil and Cuba to France and England. Of special interest is the final essay, entitled "What's the Matter With History?", a trenchant critique of the field of history today, which McPherson describes here as "more and more about less and less." He writes that professional historians have abandoned narrative history written for the greater audience of educated general readers in favor of impenetrable tomes on minor historical details which serve only to edify other academics, thus leaving the historical education of the general public to films and television programs such as Glory and Ken Burns's PBS documentary The Civil War. Each essay in Drawn With the Sword reveals McPherson's own profound knowledge of the Civil War and of the controversies among historians, presenting all sides in clear and lucid prose and concluding with his own measured and eloquent opinions. Readers will rejoice that McPherson has once again proven by example that history can be both accurate and interesting, informative and well-written. Mark Twain wrote that the Civil War "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." In Drawn With the Sword, McPherson gracefully and brilliantly illuminates this momentous conflict. |
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Contenido
THE WAR AND AMERICAN SOCIETY | 53 |
WHY THE NORTH WON | 111 |
THE ENDURING LINCOLN | 175 |
HISTORIANS AND THEIR AUDIENCES | 229 |
Index | 254 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War James M. McPherson Vista previa limitada - 1997 |
Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War James M. McPherson Vista previa limitada - 1996 |
Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War James M. McPherson Sin vista previa disponible - 1996 |
Términos y frases comunes
abolitionists Abraham Lincoln American Civil American Civil War American history antebellum antislavery audience Basler battle became black soldiers Bruce Catton campaign cause civilians command Confeder Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate defeat conflict Congress Constitution culture democracy Democrats diaries draft riot election Emancipation Proclamation enemy essay Fifty-fourth fight Fort Wagner fought freedom Frémont George Gettysburg Address Grant guerrillas Hammond Ibid ideology institutions issue Jackson James Jefferson Davis John Ken Burns labor Lee's letters liberalism liberty McClellan memoirs military Missouri moral narrative nation negative liberty Nolan North and South percent political Potomac professional historians question quoted readers regiment republic Republican Revolution seceded secession Shelby Foote Sheridan Sherman slavery slaves social society South Carolina South Lost Southern whites Stowe Tennessee theme thesis thousand tion troops Uncle Tom's Cabin Union army Union forces Union victory Unionists United Virginia vols Washington write wrote Yankee York
Pasajes populares
Página vi - Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said : " The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Página 209 - In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth.
Página 209 - Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
Página 106 - And then there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they have strove, to hinder it.
Página 43 - But you will not abide the election of a Republican President! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, 'Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!
Página 73 - I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capital.
Página 222 - The principle is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.
Página 210 - And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy — a government of the people by the same people — can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.
Página 167 - It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before, but it was one I never forgot afterward.