Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

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.

• A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920
• The Story of American Freedom (Norton Paperback)
• Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection
• Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America - Updated Edition (Politics and Society in Modern America)
• Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft
• The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
• Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente
• Class and Community: The Industrial Revolution in Lynn
• The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality (America in the World)
• A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration