Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36272 in Books
• Published on: 1992-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-- McPherson has once again written a gem of a book. Seven essays offer many provocative and original observations about our 16th president and his political philosophies. Lincoln's demand for unconditional surrender, the effective use of metaphors in his writings and speeches, and his steadfast dedication to "the proposition that all men are created equal." are a few of the topics addressed. McPherson's style is flowing, his clarity is illuminating, and his grasp of history is inspiring. Students and teachers will use this readable and well-researched collection either as a whole or a chapter at a time. A worthy and desirable addition to any high school library.
- Peggy H. Mooney, Fairfax County Public Lib . , VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A stimulating group of essays, incorporating both McPherson's own work on the Civil War along with others like Eric Foner on Reconstruction."--John Tricamo, San Francisco State University

"Insightful, provocative, and thought provoking--A valuable source for understanding Lincoln and the longterm structural consequences of the Civil War."--Robert Ubriaco, Jr., Webster University

"Essays that go right to the heart of the meaning of the war and Abraham Lincoln's role in it....Crystal-clear, well-reasoned, supremely informed essays....McPherson deftly and convincingly sketches out how Lincoln's vision and leadership made the necessary revolution possible."--The New York Times Book Review

"McPherson makes a compelling case for the revolutionary nature of the war."--The Washington Post Book World

"Serious without being dry, scholarly yet always readerly."--Boston Globe

"This book is useful for a survey course--brief, easy to understand, and well-written. It should raise interesting questions for class discussion."--Scott C. Martin, Bowling Green State University

Customer Reviews

From union to nation
This well-argued collection of James McPherson's occasional pieces focuses primarily on what the author sees as the fundamental changes that the Civil War brought to America's polity, economics, culture, and self-identity. The first, second, third, and seventh of the essays deal especially with this theme. The middle fourth, fifth, and sixth essays are less directly related to it, but nonetheless offer fascinating explorations of Lincoln the total war president, Lincoln the wordsmith, and Lincoln the "hedgehog."

Many of the people who lived through the Civil War thought of it as a revolution. Many historians since have agreed, although for varying reasons. McPherson's main project in this book is to figure out whether and how the Civil War can be considered the "second American Revolution."
He believes that the war was in fact revolutionary on several counts.

First, the war shifted the economic and political power balance in the United States. The war's devastation of southern property and demographics, especially after it evolved from a limited to a total conflict, shifted economic superiority to northern industry and agriculture. Moreover, the southern states' virtual antebellum monopoly of the White House, as well as their immense congressional power, was broken for the next half century. This is what McPherson (and others) refer to as the "external" revolution.

But there was an "internal" revolution too in the realm of legal rights and national self-identity. Four million slaves were freed and granted civil and political rights, and the southern aristocracy, along with the entire way of life and set of values it maintained, disappeared (or at least went underground). Moreover, argues McPherson, the war brought about a shift from early Republic concentration on liberty as "freedom from" (negative liberty), which distrusted strong central government, to liberty as "freedom to" (positive liberty), which emphasized the responsibility of the federal government to guarantee civil rights. This shift helped create a new sense of national identity that focused on the nation rather than the region: hence McPherson's claim that the Civil War moved the country from a "union" to a "nation."

The influence of the political philosopher Isaiah Berlin is present throughout much of McPherson's thinking about liberty, and McPherson also draws on one of Berlin's most famous essays in designating Lincoln (Chapter VI) as a hedgehog in his single-minded devotion to preserving the union. McPherson might be drawing on the work of philosophers of language in his fascinating discussion (Chapter V) of Lincoln's influential talent for creating and manipulating "live" as opposed to "dead" metaphors in expressing his opinions and seeking support for his policies. In both these cases, McPherson nicely weaves some philosophical analysis into his historical interpretations.

Where I find McPherson less helpful is his rather uncritical discussion of Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus (Chapter III). He rehearses the well-worn argument that the suspension was simply necessary from a pragmatic perspective--end of discussion. As Lincoln said in another context, "often a limb must be sacrificed to save a life." But this interpretation begs for a discussion of the moral and political short- and longterm trauma that the amputation inflicted on the body politic. How far can one go in suspending liberties in order to preserve liberty?

Nonetheless, the essays collected in Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution are exactly what readers have come to expect from McPherson: illuminating, gracefully written, well-researched. They aren't the final word, and I suspect McPherson doesn't expect them to be. But they wonderfully enrich the on-going conversation.

Outstanding!
Absolutely outstanding book on the complicated second American revolution that occured as a result of the American Civil War and the startling reversals that took place not ten years later. McPherson's essays are masterful.

First rate.

McPherson Excels with A. Lincoln Again
James McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom) is the preeminent Civil War author and scholar of our time. The Princeton University professor provides fresh insight into A. Lincoln in these seven essays.

McPherson demonstrates conclusively that the Civil War was indeed the Second American Revolution - it abolished slavery and smashed the political, economic, and social status quo. Before the War, southerners dominated American politics - after the war it was decades before a son of the south could be elected President. The absence of the south from the national legislature during the war allowed the passage of the great progressive and modernizing legislation; the Homestead Act, enabled a continental railroad, and land-grant colleges. After the war, blacks made great (if far from complete) progress in education, politics, and economics.

Unfortunately, the reactionary forces led a counter-revolution that attempted to turn back the massive changes in society with much success. That counter-revolution eventually yielded to a Second Reconstruction in the mid-20th century.

McPherson repeatedly returns to Lincoln's political evolution as the War changed from a limited war for limited ends to a total war for revolutionary ends. In the end Lincoln insisted on unconditional surrender.

I particularly enjoyed the essays entitled 'How Lincoln Won the War with Metaphors', which contrasts the communication abilities of Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, and 'The Hedgehog and the Foxes', in which McPherson favors us with a description of Lincoln as the single-minded hedgehog outlasting the multifarious foxes such as Horace Greeley and William Seward.

My only small quibble is that similar points are made using the same quotes in multiple essays (perhaps unavoidable in a collection of previously published essays), but the quotes are so evocative of Lincoln's thinking that the repetition is not only forgiven, but enjoyed.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in US history, Lincoln, or the Civil War era.