Most Popular Books by James M. McPherson

"Gettysburg is a powerful work that accurately depicts the events, battles and personal struggles of valor on both sides of the Civil War" -- Container.

Examines the events and effects of the American Civil War.

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 hands-on 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.--Publisher.

Volumes 1 through 5 cover the major battles of the Civil War chronologically from 1861 to 1865. Volume 6 contains biographies of key figures in this conflict.

A masterful portrait of the bloody one-day battle that turned the tide of the American civil war By September 1862 the war was at a crossroads, with Robert E. Lee''s Confederate Army poised to take Washington. But when the Confederates crossed the Virginia border to invade Maryland, the resulting battle at Antietam on 17 September provided the critical victory the Union needed. It crushed the Confederate hopes of British intervention and allowed Abraham Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery - changing the war for reunion into a fight for freedom. But it was also the bloodiest single day in American history, as more then 6,000 soldiers lost their lives between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River. In Crossroads of Freedom, James M. McPherson gives a compelling account of this pivotal battle, the events that led up to it and its aftermath.

How did America transform itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth? You''ll find out in LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE Sixth Edition. The authors tell this story through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. You''ll learn not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER offers students a clear, concise understanding of how America transformed itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. The authors promote this understanding by telling the story of America through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. An approach which helps students understand not only the effect of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The Concise Fifth Edition incorporates the work of new coauthor, Alice Fahs (University of California, Irvine), an accomplished historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, with special expertise in cultural history and the history of gender. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER continues to offer strong political, social, and cultural coverage and valuable pedagogical tools including History Through Film (now one in every chapter) to help draw students into the material and show the relevance of history to their own lives. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE, 5e is available in the following volume splits: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE FIFTH EDITION (Chapters 1-32), ISBN: 9781439084953; LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME I: TO 1877, (Chapters 1-17), ISBN: 9780495903826; and LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME II: SINCE 1863, (Chapters 17-32), ISBN: 9780495903833. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

In this book, words and pictures present an image to enrich the reader''s understanding of the American Civil War.

Developed to meet the demand for a low-cost, high-quality history book, this economically priced version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, Sixth Edition offers readers the complete narrative while limiting the number of features, photos, and maps. All volumes feature a paperback, two-color format that appeals to those seeking a comprehensive, trade-sized history text. A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to U.S. History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering students the most comprehensive and complete understanding of American history available. Available in the following split options: CENGAGE ADVANTAGE BOOKS: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, Sixth Edition (Chapters 1-32), ISBN: 9781111830861; Volume I: To 1877 (Chapters 1-17), ISBN: 9781111830878; Volume II: Since 1863 (Chapters 17-32), ISBN: 9781111830885. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

This economically priced version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, 7th Edition offers readers the complete narrative while limiting the number of features, photos, and maps. A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to U.S. History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering students a comprehensive and complete understanding of American history. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

From Pulitzer Prize-winner James M. McPherson comes a brilliant and passionate examination of nationalism in today''s world, and its effects on the stability of the world''s countries, big and small. Since the end of the Cold War, nationalism has re-emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the modern world. Students of nationalism have analyzed two principal categories of this phenomenon. Ethnic nationalism is more familiar and easier to define; it broke up Yugoslavia into four mutually hostile ethnic nations. It split Czechoslovakia into two nations. It threatens to do the same to Canada. In contrast, civic nationalism defines national identity not by presumed descent from an ancient bloodline with its own language, culture and genetic purity but by citizenship in a national state and loyalty to its political institutions. James M. McPherson focuses on the American Civil War and Quebec''s bid for separation from Canada as case studies in the contest between these two strains of nationalism, and offers both implicit and explicit comparisons to modern counterparts. Is Blood Thicker Than Water? will finally give us the perspective to look at this phenomenon clearly and objectively.

Roswell Lamson was one of the boldest and most skillful young officers in the Union navy. Second in the class of 1862 at Annapolis (he took his final exam while at sea during the war), he commanded more ships and flotillas than any other officer of his age or rank in the service, climaxed by his captaincy of the navy''s fastest ship in 1864, USS Gettysburg. Now, in Lamson of the Gettysburg, we have the war-time letters of this striking naval figure. What''s more, these are letters of exceptional quality. James M. McPherson, co-editor of the collection with his wife Patricia and one of America''s preeminent Civil War historians, writes that "few sets of letters equal and none surpass those of Lamson for richness of description, scope of coverage, or keenness of perception and analysis." Indeed, the McPhersons term Lamson''s correspondence "the best Civil War navy letters we have ever read or expect to read." Throughout the war, Lamson always seemed to be where the action was on the South Atlantic coast, and these letters describe with striking immediacy the part he played in these events. While serving on the USS Wabash, for instance, he directed the big deck guns that did the most damage to enemy forts at Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal, two major naval victories. He was the officer who took command of the CSS Planter in May 1862, when slaves led by Robert Smalls ran her past Confederate fortifications in Charleston harbor and delivered her to the Union fleet. He commanded a gunboat fleet on the Nansemond River that helped stop James Longstreet''s advance on Norfolk. In a daring attempt to blow up Fort Fisher, the huge earthwork fortress that guarded the entrance into the Cape Fear river, he towed the USS Louisiana (packed with more than two hundred tons of gunpowder) directly under the guns of the fort, sneaking into the shallows behind a rebel blockade runner, (Lamson describes "a terrific explosion. An immense column of flame rose towards the sky, and four distinct reports like that of sharp heavy thunder were heard and a dense mass of smoke enveloped everything"). And a few weeks later, he led a contingent of seventy men from the Gettysburg as part of the January 15, 1865 assault on the sea-face parapets of Fort Fisher, where he himself was wounded and his close friend, Samuel W. Preston, died. The letters also capture the spirited personality of Lamson himself, resolved to "stand by the Union as long as there is a plank afloat," but also deeply ambivalent about the war. In a moving passage early in the collection, he describes leaving Annapolis for war duty on the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides): "We gave three cheers for Capt R., three for the troops, and for old friendship''s sake three for those of our number who intending to resign [to join the Confederacy] were requested not to go on board. Some of my best friends were among them. This will be a sad sad war. It will be more painful to strike than to be struck." The publication of the letters of Roswell Lamson marks a major addition to Civil War literature. Featuring superb introductions to each section as well as informative notes that explain references in the correspondence to people, ships, land and sea battles, or homefront news, Lamson of The Gettysburg now joins the first rank of Civil War sources. One of the few accounts we have from the perspective of a navy officer, it is a book that everyone interested in the Civil War or in American naval history will want to read.

How did America transform itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth? You''ll find out in LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE Sixth Edition. The authors tell this story through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. You''ll learn not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Volumes 1 through 5 cover the major battles of the Civil War chronologically from 1861 to 1865. Volume 6 contains biographies of key figures in this conflict.

From Pulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson comes a thrilling account of America''s westward expansion. In this sweeping tale of one of the most exciting and colorful periods in our country''s growth, Dr. McPherson interweaves the nation''s attempts to bind its Civil War wounds through Reconstruction with the triumphant and tragic taming of the American frontier. Into the Westcontains personal narratives from settlers and soldiers as well as profiles and accounts of the actions of many historical luminaries involved in Reconstruction and the movement west, such as President Andrew Johnson, General George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Geronimo, and Wild Bill Hickock. Dr. McPherson also explores the role of women and the development of the arts on the frontier, the role and legend of the cowboy, and the destruction of the Native American way of life in this thought-provoking companion to the bestsellingFields of Fury. Filled with maps, period photos, illustrations, and anecdotes, this vivid retelling of America''s journey,Into the West,will fascinate readers, young and old.

Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for History and a New York Times Bestseller, Battle Cry of Freedom is universally recognized as the definitive account of the Civil War. It was hailed in The New York Times as "historical writing of the highest order." The Washington Post called it "the finest single volume on the war and its background." And The Los Angeles Times wrote that "of the 50,000 books written on the Civil War, it is the finest compression of that national paroxysm ever fitted between two covers." Now available in a splendid new edition is The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom. Boasting some seven hundred pictures, including a hundred and fifty color images and twenty-four full-color maps, here is the ultimate gift book for everyone interested in American history. McPherson has selected all the illustrations, including rare contemporary photographs, period cartoons, etchings, woodcuts, and paintings, carefully choosing those that best illuminate the narrative. More important, he has written extensive captions (some 35,000 words in all, virtually a book in themselves), many of which offer genuinely new information and interpretations that significantly enhance the text. The text itself, streamlined by McPherson, remains a fast-paced narrative that brilliantly captures two decades of contentious American history, from the Mexican War to Lee''s surrender at Appomattox. The reader will find a truly masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities--as well as McPherson''s thoughtful commentary on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union''s victory. A must-have purchase for the legions of Civil War buffs, The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom is both a spectacularly beautiful volume and the definitive account of the most important conflict in our nation''s history.

This economically priced version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, 7th Edition offers readers the complete narrative while limiting the number of features, photos, and maps. A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to U.S. History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering students a comprehensive and complete understanding of American history. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

How did America transform itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth? You''ll find out in LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE Sixth Edition. The authors tell this story through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. You''ll learn not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Volumes 1 through 5 cover the major battles of the Civil War chronologically from 1861 to 1865. Volume 6 contains biographies of key figures in this conflict.

American history is people, events, places, documents, art, inventions, literature. In other words -- American history is everything about the adventures of all Americans -- past and present. Only by learning about your nation''s past can you understand what it means to be an American today. The American Journey helps you learn about your nation''s past by organizing its history around 10 themes. - p. xvi.

Explores the myth of Jesse James as a Robin Hood figure and details the Southern refusal to accept some history books about the Civil War.