Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson

McPherson casts the pre-war years as a time of intense ideological division and violence. He seeks to contextualize the Civil War within the political, social, economic, and military developments of the mid-1800s. McPherson refers to this period as the “Civil War era,” contending that the causes of the war cannot be fully represented on a smaller timeframe. Though the Civil War officially lasted for less than five years, Battle Cry of Freedom covers two decades of American history, spanning from the outset of the Mexican-American War to the surrender of the Confederate army at Appomattox.

For its depth of analysis, the book earned a Pulitzer Prize. The book is the sixth installment in a series called the Oxford History of the United States. McPherson, one of the foremost experts on the Civil War that took place between 18, synthesizes the social, intellectual, and economic factors that catalyzed the violent national schism between the North and South. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing ''second American Revolution'' we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is a 1988 book on American history by professor and historian James M. This ''new birth of freedom,'' as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war, slavery, and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. The South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty.

The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. From there it moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself-the battles, the strategic maneuvering by each side, the politics, and the personalities. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War including the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. 'Now featuring a new Afterword by the author, this handy paperback edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom is without question the definitive one-volume history of the Civil War.

Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson