Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War

Description:

About this item:

One historian’s journey to find the end of the Civil War—and, along the way, to expand our understanding of the nature of war itself and how societies struggle to draw the line between war and peace

We set out on the James River, March 25, 1865, aboard the paddle steamboat
River Queen. President Lincoln is on his way to General Grant’s headquarters at City Point, Virginia, and he’s decided he won’t return to Washington until he’s witnessed, or perhaps even orchestrated, the end of the Civil War. Now, it turns out, more than a century and a half later, historians are still searching for that end.

Was it April 9, at Appomattox, as conventional wisdom holds, where Lee surrendered to Grant in Wilmer McLean’s parlor? Or was it ten weeks afterward, in Galveston, where a federal commander proclaimed Juneteenth the end of slavery? Or perhaps in August of 1866, when President Andrew Johnson simply declared “the insurrection is at an end”? That the answer was elusive was baffling even to a historian of the stature of Michael Vorenberg, whose work served as a key source of Steven Spielberg’s
Lincoln. Vorenberg was inspired to write this groundbreaking book, finding its title in the peace Lincoln hoped for but could not make before his assassination. A peace that required not one but many endings, as Vorenberg reveals in these pages, the most important of which came well more than a year after Lincoln’s untimely death.

To say how a war ends is to suggest how it should be remembered, and Vorenberg’s search is not just for the Civil War’s endpoint but for its true nature and legacy, so essential to the American identity. It’s also a quest, in our age of “forever wars,” to understand whether the United States's interminable conflicts of the current era have a precedent in the Civil War—and whether, in a sense, wars ever end at all, or merely wax and wane.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Everyone knows the Civil War ended with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. But as Michael Vorenberg shows in this fascinating and original narrative, the situation was actually much more complicated, and a full account of the war’s end has all sorts of ramifications, legal, military, and racial. Vorenberg’s account helps us understand what the war was all about and whether in some ways it is still being fought." —Eric Foner, author of The Second Founding

"In this powerful and provocative book, Michael Vorenberg vividly dramatizes how America was 'caught between a state of war and a state of peace' after Appomattox. With careful attention to legal and political debates, and to the themes of insurgency, occupation, conquest, and freedom, Vorenberg traces the prolonged national struggle to end the Civil War—and asks us to contemplate why our myths of a definitive peace persist."
—Elizabeth R. Varon, University of Virginia, author of Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

"In a bracing challenge to the received wisdom that America’s Civil War ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln’s Peace sheds a brilliant light on the liminal space between what was no longer outright war nor yet a realized peace. Vorenberg’s sparkling narrative tells of ongoing conflict, violence, legal disputation, international imbroglios, and—above all—contested freedom. In sum, a masterly and original work." —Richard Carwardine, author of Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union

"A provocative and disquieting counter-narrative to the long-held and widespread assumption that the Civil War ended with the Appomattox Surrender. Rather, the author argues, the often-bloody aftermath known as ‘Reconstruction’ was a continuation of violent conflict, and thus war, albeit of a different kind. It was waged not only in states of the former Confederacy but also across the West. Drawing on an impressive range of sources and interweaving military, racial, legal, and political dynamics, Vorenberg’s arresting narrative will provide readers with much food for thought."
—Joan Waugh, author of U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth

"Vorenberg leads us on an often surprising journey through the twilight time between Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House and the elusive end of hostilities between North and South, long after the Civil War was traditionally thought to have ended. In this fast-unfolding account, he presents the nation's leaders in compelling close focus as they struggle to find their way through a labyrinth of political, legal, and military ambiguities, while hopes for a clear-cut peace evaporate and the shape of a new postwar America comes painfully into being."
—Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Klan War

"Lincoln’s Peace is the finest account of how the Civil War ended—yet didn’t really end—that I have ever read. In a compelling, wide-ranging, fast-flowing, narrative Michael Vorenberg first takes the reader to the supposedly final battles, negotiations, surrenders and skirmishes that ought to have concluded the most violent war of insurrection in American history; he then describes the sad mess that followed—assassination, pardons, dropped treason trials, escapes from justice and disputed versions of guilt and responsibility that make the work a must-read for all of us today."Nigel Hamilton, author of Lincoln vs Davis: The War of the Presidents

About the Author

MICHAEL VORENBERG is the author of Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment, which was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and was used as the basis for the screenplay of Stephen Spielberg’s 2012 film, Lincoln. He is also the author of The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents, as well as a number of essays on legal and constitutional history. His writings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post. He teaches at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

NaN out of 5

NaN% of customers are satisfied

Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War

BHD24851

Quantity:

|

Order today to get by

Free delivery on orders over BHD 20

Return and refund policies

Product origin: United States

Electrical items shipped from the US are by default considered to be 120v, unless stated otherwise in the product description. Contact Bolo support for voltage information of specific products. A step-up transformer is required to convert from 120v to 240v. All heating electrical items of 120v will be automatically cancelled.

All product information listed on the site are from 3rd party sources, including images and reviews. bolo.bh is not liable for any claims or promotions mentioned on the product description or images with textual content. For detailed product information, please contact the manufacturer or Bolo support by logging into your account. Unless stated otherwise during checkout, all import taxes and duty are included in the price mentioned on the product page. bolo.bh follows the rules and regulations of sale in Bahrain and will cancel items in an order that are illegal for sale in Bahrain. We take all the necessary steps to ensure only products for sale in Bahrain are displayed. Product stock and delivery estimate may change with the seller even after placing the order. All items are shipped by air and items marked “Dangerous Goods (DG)” by the IATA will be cancelled from orders. We strive to process your order as soon as it is finalized.

Similar suggestions by Bolo

More from this brand

Similar items from “Americas”