Among the many novel features of this volume: It carefully examines Lincoln's views on a wide variety of subjects—economics, race, the Constitution, Indians, patronage, habeas corpus , and dozens more. It offers biographical sketches of members of Lincoln's family and describes how he felt about them, including his "rebel" sister-in-law and an enterprising cousin who used Lincoln's Presidential nomination to launch a flourishing souvenir business. It portrays and clearly captures scores of Lincoln's associates, assistants, colleagues, and enemies—from Charles Francis Adams and George Atzerodt to Fernando Wood and Richard Yates. It appraises all the major Lincoln biographers and their books and also covers others associated with the subject: collectors and collections, portrait painters and photographers, famous documents and sites.

When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, states in the South began seceding, refusing to be ruled by an antislavery party. The Civil War began weeks after he took office. Lincoln became the commander-in-chief of the Union armies during four years of bloody fighting. He also became the main spokesman for the ideals of the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Southern states free of their masters, and making the ending of slavery one of the Union's goals. Lincoln was reelected in 1864, and by early 1865, a Union victory was near. "With malice toward none and charity for all, let us bind up the nation's wounds." Lincoln said in his second inaugural. The war ended in early April. Days later, Lincoln was assassinated by a Southern sympathizer, and so became the highest-ranking victim of the great Civil War. Book jacket.

“In this encyclopedia of Lincoln’s assassination, Edward Steers, Jr., the foremost scholar of the assassination, has assembled knowledge of the subject scattered in documents and writings over a period of nearly a century and a half, organized it authoritatively and comprehensively, and written about it clearly.” —William Hanchett, author of Out of the Wilderness: The Life of Abraham Lincoln The definitive A-to-Z reference to the Abraham Lincoln assassination by Edward Steers, author of Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. With a foreword by Manhunt author James L. Swanson.

Blood on the Moon examines the evidence, myths, and lies surrounding the political assassination that dramatically altered the course of American history. Was John Wilkes Booth a crazed loner acting out of revenge, or was he the key player in a wide conspiracy aimed at removing the one man who had crushed the Confederacy's dream of independence? Edward Steers Jr. crafts an intimate, engaging narrative of the events leading to Lincoln's death and the political, judicial, and cultural aftermaths of his assassination.

The complete text of one of the most important speeches in American history, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln arrived at the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to remember not only the grim bloodshed that had just occurred there, but also to remember the American ideals that were being put to the ultimate test by the Civil War. A rousing appeal to the nation’s better angels, The Gettysburg Address remains an inspiring vision of the United States as a country “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

James McPherson has emerged as one of America's finest historians. Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times Book Review, called "history writing of the highest order." In that volume, McPherson gathered in the broad sweep of events, the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the Civil War era. Now, in Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, he offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on aspects of Lincoln and the war that have rarely been discussed in depth. McPherson again displays his keen insight and sterling prose as he examines several critical themes in American history. He looks closely at the President's role as Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, showing how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He explores the importance of Lincoln's great rhetorical skills, uncovering how--through parables and figurative language--he was uniquely able to communicate both the purpose of the war and a new meaning of liberty to the people of the North. In another section, McPherson examines the Civil War as a Second American Revolution, describing how the Republican Congress elected in 1860 passed an astonishing blitz of new laws (rivaling the first hundred days of the New Deal), and how the war not only destroyed the social structure of the old South, but radically altered the balance of power in America, ending 70 years of Southern power in the national government. The Civil War was the single most transforming and defining experience in American history, and Abraham Lincoln remains the most important figure in the pantheon of our mythology. These graceful essays, written by one of America's leading historians, offer fresh and unusual perspectives on both.

Among the many novel features of this volume: It carefully examines Lincoln's views on a wide variety of subjects such as economics, race, the Constitution, Indians, patronage, habeas corpus, and dozens more. It offers biographical sketches of members of Lincoln's family and describes how he felt about them, including his "rebel" sister-in-law and an enterprising cousin who used Lincoln's Presidential nomination to launch a flourishing souvenir business. It portrays and clearly captures scores of Lincoln's associates, assistants, colleagues, and enemies, from Charles Francis Adams and George Atzerodt to Fernando Wood and Richard Yates. It appraises all the major Lincoln biographers and their books and also covers others associated with the subject: collectors and collections, portrait painters and photographers, famous documents and sites. - From Publisher.