Lincoln's peace : the struggle to end the American Civil War / Michael Vorenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vorenberg, Michael, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.

Lincoln, Abraham.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Peace.

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Influence.

United States--Politics and government--1861-1865.

United States--Politics and government--1865-1877.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 438 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2025]

Summary:

"We set out on the James River, March 25, 1865, aboard the paddle steamboat the 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 9th, 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 the principal source of Spielberg's Lincoln. He 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 discovers in these pages, the most important of which came well over 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 American identity. It's also a quest, in our age of "forever wars," to understand whether the U.S.'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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue: Endings and beginnings

Part I. Peace was not made. The peacemaker

A big country

Righteous peace, fearful retribution

Currents convulsive

Almost an end

Juneteenths

A short time in peace

Part II. The grasp of war. Complete and perfect freedom

Armies of observation

Demons incarnate

The final trial

Imperfectly closed

Proclaiming peace

The fight for the end

Epilogue: The peacemakers.

Notes:

"This is a Borzoi book"

Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-418) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Vorenberg, Michael, 1964- Lincoln's peace.

ISBN:

9781524733179

1524733172

9780525434825

0525434828

OCLC:

1442330950

Publisher Number:

90101684973