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James M. McPherson

Author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

68+ Works 14,494 Members 198 Reviews 27 Favorited

About the Author

James M. McPherson is the author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, which won a Pulitzer Prize in history, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, a Lincoln Prize winner. He is the George Henry Davis Professor of American History at Princeton University in New Jersey, show more where he also lives. His newest book, entitled Abraham Lincoln, celebrates the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth with a short, but detailed look at this president's life. (Bowker Author Biography) James M. McPherson, McPherson was born in 1936 and received a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1963. He began teaching at Princeton University in the mid 1960's and is the author of several articles, reviews and essays on the Civil War, specifically focusing on the role of slaves in their own liberation and the activities of the abolitionists. His earliest work, "The Struggle for Equality," studied the activities of the Abolitionist movement following the Emancipation Proclamation. "Battle Cry of Freedom" won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1989. "Drawn With the Sword" (1996) is a collection of essays, with one entitled "The War that Never Goes Away," that is introduced by a passage from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address on March 4, 1865 from which its title came: "Fondly do we hope - and fervently do we pray - that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.'" "From Limited to Total War: 1861-1865" shows the depth of the political and social transformation brought about during the Civil War. It told how the human cost of the Civil War exceeded that of any country during World War I and explains the background to Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1862. The book also recounts the exploits of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first black regiments organized in the Civil War, and their attack on Fort Wagner in July 1863. It pays tribute to Robert Gould Shaw, the white commanding officer of the regiment, who died in the attack and was buried in a mass grave with many of his men. Professor McPherson's writings are not just about the middle decades of the nineteenth century but are also about the last decades of the twentieth century. The political turmoil prior to the Civil War, the violence of the war, Lincoln's legacy and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson shed some light on contemporary events. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Prof. James M. McPherson (photo courtesy of Princeton University)

Series

Works by James M. McPherson

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988) — Author — 5,336 copies
To the Best of My Ability (2000) 429 copies
The Atlas of the Civil War (1994) 315 copies
Abraham Lincoln (2009) 273 copies
Images of the Civil War (1992) 116 copies
Writing the Civil War : The Quest to Understand (1998) — Editor — 115 copies
The Struggle for Equality (1964) 52 copies
The Abolitionist Legacy (1976) 37 copies
La guerra di Lincoln (2018) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Civil War: An Illustrated History (1990) — Contributor — 2,000 copies
Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War (1882) — Contributor — 848 copies
The American Heritage History of the Civil War (1960) — Introduction, some editions — 801 copies
Brother against Brother (1983) — Foreword — 538 copies
Booknotes: Stories from American History (2001) — Contributor — 456 copies
Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War (2006) — Introduction, some editions — 293 copies
Lees Lieutenants (3 Volumes In One Abridged) : A Study in Command (1942) — Introduction, some editions — 142 copies
The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference (2002) — Introduction — 121 copies
Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (2008) — Contributor — 115 copies
The Mammoth Book of True War Stories (1992) — Contributor — 87 copies
The American Civil War: This Mighty Scourge of War (2001) — Foreword — 73 copies
Towards a New Past: Dissenting Essays in American History (1968) — Contributor — 49 copies
The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists (1965) — Contributor — 46 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 1990 (1990) — Author "Ulysses S. Grant's Final Victory" — 14 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1991 (1991) — Author "How Lincoln Won the War With Metaphor" — 14 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1998 (1998) — Author "Antietam: The South's Missed Opportunity" — 14 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 1999 (1999) — Author "Failed Southern Strategies" — 11 copies
Andersonville: The Complete Original Screenplay (1996) — Introduction, some editions — 10 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2007 (2007) — Author "Any Measure Which May Best Subdue the Enemy" — 7 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2004 (2004) — Author "In Review: In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863" — 6 copies
Two Black Teachers During the Civil War (1970) — Introduction, some editions — 6 copies

Tagged

19th century (273) Abraham Lincoln (169) ACW (60) alternate history (220) America (110) American (118) American Civil War (940) American history (1,146) American Presidents (53) Antietam (54) biography (254) Civil War (2,935) Civil War History (85) Confederacy (50) essays (124) fiction (72) Gettysburg (85) hardcover (81) history (3,143) Kindle (47) Lincoln (240) memoir (66) military (301) military history (589) non-fiction (1,128) own (40) politics (84) presidents (102) read (108) reference (78) slavery (85) to-read (556) U.S. History (111) United States History (58) United States--History--Civil War (64) unread (55) US (47) US history (251) USA (388) war (252)

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Discussions

Shelfby Foote v. Bruce Catton v. James McPherson in American Civil War (July 2017)

Reviews

This is a a haunting volume. The American Civil War was one of the first conflicts to not only be photographed but it seemed multitudes of artists were able to capture the era and the horrors that enveloped a young nation as it suffered some serious growing pains.
 
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JHemlock | Mar 7, 2024 |
We'll begin our tour three miles northwest of the Gettysburg town square, at the intersection of Knoxlyn Road and U.S. Route 30, the historic Chambersburg Pike. Here, on the morning of July 1, were posted the outlying pickets of the Eighth Illinois Calvary. As the sun burned away the mist, they spotted a column of Confederate infantry marching toward them.
 
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taurus27 | 12 other reviews | Feb 7, 2024 |
(2008)Very good concentration by McPherson on Lincoln's hands on management of the Civil War. His struggle to find a competent and collaborative General in Chief of the Army persisted all through the war until he finally puts Grant in that position. PW-Without Lincoln not only would we have not survived as a country, but the war would not have kept on track and finally won by the Union.Given the importance of Lincoln's role as commander-in-chief to the nation's very survival, says McPherson, this role has been underexamined. McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom), the doyen of Civil War historians, offers firm evidence of Lincoln's military effectiveness in this typically well-reasoned, well-presented analysis. Lincoln exercised the right to take any necessary measures to preserve the union and majority rule, including violating longstanding civil liberties (though McPherson considers the infringements milder than those adopted by later presidents). As McPherson shows, Lincoln understood the synergy of political and military decision-making; the Emancipation Proclamation, for instance, harmonized the principles of union and freedom with a strategy of attacking the crucial Confederate resource of slave labor. Lincoln's commitment to linking policy and strategy made him the most hands-on American commander-in-chief; he oversaw strategy and offered operational advice, much of it shrewd and perceptive. Lincoln may have been an amateur of war, but McPherson successfully establishes him as America's greatest war leader.… (more)
 
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derailer | 19 other reviews | Jan 25, 2024 |
(2002)Very good and to the point analysis of the battle of Antietam and its relavance to the Civil War, calling it a turning point in how the war played out and the fact that the South eventually lost.
 
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derailer | 6 other reviews | Jan 25, 2024 |

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Works
68
Also by
28
Members
14,494
Popularity
#1,582
Rating
4.0
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198
ISBNs
247
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Favorited
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