Abraham Lincoln and the second American Revolution
ISBN: 9780195055429
Platform/Publisher: ACLS / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Ten pages at a time; Download: Ten pages at a time
Subjects: American: 1789-1899;

In seven thoughtful essays the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom examines Lincoln's role in the transformation wrought by the Civil War--the liberation of four million slaves, the overthrow of the social and political order of the South. McPherson calls the 16th president a conservative revolutionary whose goal was to conserve the Union as the revolutionary heritage of the founding fathers. He addresses at length a subject oddly overlooked by historians and Civl War scholars: Lincoln as strategist and war leader. McPherson flatly states that he was responsible for the unconditional Union victory. Lincoln's superb leadership as president, commander-in-chief and head of the Republican party, the author concludes, determined the pace of the ``second American revolution'' and ensured its success. These scholarly essays convey the enduring significance of Lincoln's words and ideas as he grappled with issues which, as McPherson points out, will never become obsolete: the meaning of freedom, the limits of government power and individual liberty in time of crisis and the problems of wartime leadership. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

James M. McPherson is the author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, which won a Pulitzer Prize in history, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, a Lincoln Prize winner. He is the George Henry Davis Professor of American History at Princeton University in New Jersey, where he also lives.

His newest book, entitled Abraham Lincoln, celebrates the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth with a short, but detailed look at this president's life. (Bowker Author Biography)


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