James M. McPherson
Forfatter af Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Om forfatteren
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, vis mere 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) vis mindre
Image credit: Prof. James M. McPherson (photo courtesy of Princeton University)
Serier
Værker af James M. McPherson
The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union (1965) 236 eksemplarer
The Most Fearful Ordeal: Original Coverage of the Civil War by Writers and Reporters of The New York Times (2004) 83 eksemplarer
Marching Toward Freedom: Blacks in the Civil War 1861-1865 (The Library of American History) (1965) 54 eksemplarer
"We Cannot Escape History": Lincoln and the Last Best Hope of Earth (1995) — Redaktør — 35 eksemplarer
The Grand Old Man of Maine: Selected Letters of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 1865-1914 (2004) 25 eksemplarer
Region, Race and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward (1982) — Redaktør — 19 eksemplarer
American Heritage History of the Civil War 3 eksemplarer
Lincoln and the strategy of unconditional surrender 2 eksemplarer
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE IN AMERICA: Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (3 Volume Set); Vol I; Vol II; Vol III — Redaktør — 1 eksemplar
A Walk at Gettysburg 1 eksemplar
A New Christianity for a New World: why faith is dying and how a new faith is being born 1 eksemplar
THE HEDGEHOG AND THE FOXES 1 eksemplar
Encyclopedia of Civil War biographies 1 eksemplar
Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Concise Edition (Non-InfoTrac Version) (2000) 1 eksemplar
Podcast Meet the Writers: Civil War 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999) — Bidragyder — 1,760 eksemplarer
The American Heritage History of the Civil War (1960) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver — 801 eksemplarer
What Ifs? of American History : Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (2003) — Bidragyder — 501 eksemplarer
Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War (2006) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver — 293 eksemplarer
Lees Lieutenants (3 Volumes In One Abridged) : A Study in Command (1942) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver — 142 eksemplarer
Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past and Each Other (2001) — Bidragyder — 132 eksemplarer
An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York… (1994) — Forord — 131 eksemplarer
Hearts Touched by Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Modern Library) (2011) — Bidragyder — 91 eksemplarer
Inside the Confederate nation : essays in honor of Emory M. Thomas (2005) — Bidragyder — 16 eksemplarer
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 1990 (1990) — Author "Ulysses S. Grant's Final Victory" — 14 eksemplarer
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1991 (1991) — Author "How Lincoln Won the War With Metaphor" — 14 eksemplarer
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1998 (1998) — Author "Antietam: The South's Missed Opportunity" — 14 eksemplarer
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 1999 (1999) — Author "Failed Southern Strategies" — 11 eksemplarer
Andersonville: The Complete Original Screenplay (1996) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver — 10 eksemplarer
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2007 (2007) — Author "Any Measure Which May Best Subdue the Enemy" — 7 eksemplarer
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 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Fødselsdato
- 1936-10-11
- Køn
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Fødested
- Valley City, North Dakota, USA
- Bopæl
- Valley City, North Dakota, USA (birth)
Princeton, New Jersey, USA - Uddannelse
- Gustavus Adolphus College (B.A.|1958)
Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.|1963) - Erhverv
- professor
historian - Organisationer
- Princeton University
American Historical Association - Priser og hædersbevisninger
- Samuel Eliot Morison Prize (2007)
Pritzker Literature Award (2007)
Jefferson Lecture (2000)
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Award (2014)
Phi Beta Kappa
Medlemmer
Discussions
Shelfby Foote v. Bruce Catton v. James McPherson i American Civil War (juli 2017)
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Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 68
- Also by
- 28
- Medlemmer
- 14,497
- Popularitet
- #1,582
- Vurdering
- 4.0
- Anmeldelser
- 199
- ISBN
- 247
- Sprog
- 6
- Udvalgt
- 27
Neither eloquent nor impartial, lacking any new hypotheses and perspectives, this work falls abysmally short of what one should expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
A dry read that is laced with sanctimonious regurgitation of political agendas that were made with hindsight many decades after the Civil War. McPherson portrays – if he does at all - the characters of the era (leading men and lower ranks alike) like long dried-up gingerbread men and to add insult to injury the majority of such characters are related to the Union. There is also noticeable “cherry-picking” involved in his scheme. Clearly, in such instances when he writes about notables that fought for the South, he selects the most infamous ones, and then spends his mediocre literary talent expanding - even carefully trotting out their most damning character flaws and recorded actions - of which there were many.
A less than sophisticated writing style one can forgive but should not a writer of a serious work of any history abstain from such subterfuge?
Most readers don’t seem to care and neither does the association awarding the Pulitzer Prize. At least, they did not in 1989. Well, the reasons completely elude me.
This is even more puzzling as there are infinitely better works out there like Shelby Foote’s equally eloquent and exhaustive Narrative of the Civil War though offering a somewhat narrower perspective does include intriguing new perspectives. Also much more neutral in tone is Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac by Stephen Sears. I get it, the writer is an educated, smart man but in this here case - who wrote this here book then?… (mere)