James M. McPherson

Embattled Rebel James McPherson Professor Emeritus at Princeton University James McPherson is the author of more than 20 popular and critically lauded books about the Civil War, including Tried by War, For Cause and Comrades, and Battle Cry of Freedom, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Embattled Rebel is a reassessment of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ historical reputation as a failed military commander. Rebel yell S.C. Gwynne A former long-time correspondent and editor at Time magazine, S.C. Gwynne has also written for the New York Times, Harper’s, and The Los Angeles Times, among several other publications. Gwynne’s books include Selling Money, Outlaw Bank, and Empire of the Summer Moon, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Rebel yell humanizes the legendary life of Civil War General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson Liar, temptress, soldier, spy Karen Abbott The pioneer of “sizzle history” (USA Today), Karen Abbott is the bestselling author of American Rose, a rollicking biography of chanteuse Gypsy Rose Lee; and Sin in the Second City, an historical account of America’s most famous turn-of-the-century brothels. In Liar, temptress, soldier, spy, Abbott tells the true story of four women—a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and widow—who were spies in the Civil War. Parkway Central Library 1901 Vine Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway) This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required. For more information, please call 215-567-4341, or click here

Location: Street: Free Library of Philadelphia Additional: 1901 Vine Street City: Philadelphia, Province: Pennsylvania Postal Code: 19103-5207 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)

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From the dean of Civil War historians and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, a powerful new reckoning with Jefferson Davis as military commander of the Confederacy.

History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis. His cause went down in disastrous defeat and left the South impoverished for generations. If that cause had succeeded, it would have torn the United States in two and preserved the institution of slavery. Many Americans in Davis’s own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, if not a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. In order to understand the Civil War and its outcome, it is essential to give Davis his due as a military leader and as the president of an aspiring Confederate nation.

Davis did not make it easy on himself. His subordinates and enemies alike considered him difficult, egotistical, and cold. He was gravely ill throughout much of the war, often working from home and even from his sickbed. Nonetheless, McPherson argues, Davis shaped and articulated the principal policy of the Confederacy with clarity and force: the quest for independent nationhood. Although he had not been a fire-breathing secessionist, once he committed himself to a Confederate nation he never deviated from this goal. In a sense, Davis was the last Confederate left standing in 1865.

As president of the Confederacy, Davis devoted most of his waking hours to military strategy and operations, along with Commander Robert E. Lee, and delegated the economic and diplomatic functions of strategy to his subordinates. Davis was present on several battlefields with Lee and even took part in some tactical planning; indeed, their close relationship stands as one of the great military-civilian partnerships in history.

Most critical appraisals of Davis emphasize his choices in and management of generals rather than his strategies, but no other chief executive in American history exercised such tenacious handson influence in the shaping of military strategy. And while he was imprisoned for two years after the Confederacy’s surrender awaiting a trial for treason that never came, and lived for another twenty-four years, he never once recanted the cause for which he had fought and lost. McPherson gives us Jefferson Davis as the commander in chief he really was, showing persuasively that while Davis did not win the war for the South, he was scarcely responsible for losing it. About the Author

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He is the bestselling author of numerous books on the Civil War, including Battle Cry of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Tried by War, and For Cause and Comrades, both of which won the Lincoln Prize.

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)

From Pulitzer Prize–winning author James McPherson, comes Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief, a powerful new reckoning with Jefferson Davis as military commander of the Confederacy. History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis. His cause went down in disastrous defeat and left the South impoverished for generations. If that cause had succeeded, it would have torn the United States in two and preserved the institution of slavery. Many Americans in Davis’s own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, if not a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. In order to understand the Civil War and its outcome, it is essential to give Davis his due as a military leader and as the president of an aspiring Confederate nation. James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He has published numerous volumes on the Civil War, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, New York Times bestseller Crossroads of Freedom, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, which won the Lincoln Prize. (jasbro)… (mere)

Pickford Film Center & Village Books present "Writers in the Limelight." Join us for the screening of lectures and presentations from some of the most celebrated voices in the humanities, arts, and sciences. Watch authors Harold Holzer & James McPherson discuss their book, Hearts Touched by Fire, in this special movie showing at the Pickford Film Center’s Limelight Cinema. (Author is not attending this event). Tickets are $5 and are available through the Pickford Film Center. Village Books will host a discussion after the showing and will provide books for sale at the event.

Location: Street: 1416 Cornwall Avenue Additional: Pickford Theatre City: Bellingham, Province: Washington Postal Code: 98225 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)

Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening and thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders.

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Location: Street: 695 E. Colorado Blvd City: Pasadena, Province: California Postal Code: 91101 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)

James M. McPherson , Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.

JAMES McPHERSON, bestselling Civil War historian and History Professor Emertius of Princeton University, speaks about Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief, his new book illuminating how Lincoln worked with—and often against— his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it. (booksense)… (mere)