Synopses & Reviews
Although Abraham Lincoln was among seven presidents who served during the tumultuous years between the end of the Mexican War and the end of the Reconstruction era, history has not been kind to the others: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.and#160;In contrast, history sees Abraham Lincoln as a giant in character and deeds. During his presidency, he governed brilliantly, developed the economy, liberated four million people from slavery, reunified the nation, and helped enact the Homestead Act, among other accomplishments. He proved to be not only an outstanding commander in chief but also a skilled diplomat, economist, humanist, educator, and moralist.and#160;Lincoln achieved that and more because he was a master of the art of American power. He understood that the struggle for hearts and minds was the essence of politics in a democracy. He asserted power mostly by appealing to peopleand#8217;s hopes rather than their fears. All along he tried to shape rather than reflect prevailing public opinions that differed from his own. To that end, he was brilliant at bridging the gap between progressives and conservatives by reining in the former and urging on the latter.and#160;His art of power ultimately reflected his unswerving devotion to the Declaration of Independenceand#8217;s principles and the Constitutionand#8217;s institutions, or as he so elegantly expressed it, and#8220;to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.and#8221;and#160;
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Review
Truly a tour de force... intellectual history and criticism at the highest level, told with passion and artistry. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of < i=""> The Southern Past <>
Review
Perceptive, eloquent, and timely, Blight's book should find a wide and appreciative audience. Gary Gallagher, author of < i=""> The Union War <>
Review
The ghosts of the Civil War never leave us, as David Blight knows perhaps better than anyone, and in this superb book he masterfully unites two distant but inextricably bound events with insightful dissection of the works of four of our best writers, writers obsessed with coming to terms with our original sin. Ken Burns
Review
Blight's elegant narrative enables us to see the full, enduring, significance of the Civil War in the consciousness of four major writers. An outstanding achievement. Caryl Phillips, author of < i=""> Dancing in the Dark <>
Review
The Civil War has given us not only great history, literature, and art, but also great works of thought. David Blight enriches this canon by probing the war's power to haunt and inspire every generation. American Oracle is intellectual history at its best--deep terrain, mined by a scholar who brings gems to the page. Tony Horwitz, author of < i=""> Confederates in the Attic <>
Review
During the middle decades of the twentieth century the United States faced a dual challenge--of civility and memory, each one race-related. David Blight develops deep biographical links to connect and explain those troubled years, and does so with eloquence. He thereby adds a brilliant new aspect to the field of American memory studies. Michael Kammen, Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture (Emeritus) at Cornell University and Past President of the Organization of American Historians
Review
This is a distinctive addition to the books about the Civil War and how we view it on the conflict's 150th anniversary. Publishers Weekly
Review
As the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011-15) begins, historian Blight examines how we handled the centennial, which occurred at the infancy of the civil rights movement, and the persistent questioning about all the elements that were at the heart of the nation-rending civil conflict. History and great literature blend beautifully as Blight conducts his examination of the works of four writers--Robert Penn Warren, southern-born novelist; Bruce Catton, historian and journalist; Edmund Wilson, literary critic; and James Baldwin, northern-born essayist and race critic--providing background and context for their works and their views of the centennial and all its commercialism and hypocrisy. From their different perspectives, the four offer "a way of understanding the Civil War both as something very American and as an event in a larger human drama." Blight explores Warren's straightforward look at the racism at the heart of the war and the continued hypocrisy of southern commemorations, Catton's cold-eyed examination of the cost of war, Wilson's deconstruction of the war as a unifier of the nation, and Baldwin's chastisement of American racism. Throughout, Blight explores the mythology that came out of the Civil War and the sense of American redemption that did not include any examination of the tragedies of racism and slavery. Vanessa Bush
Review
David W. Blight's richly interpretive American Oracle contextualizes the sentimentalized celebration of the Civil War in the early 1960s within the tense realities of the civil rights era and the Cold War. Blight unravels the complexities of Civil War memory and meaning at a time when most white Americans considered restoration of the Union, not emancipation, as the war's grand result. Booklist (starred review)
Review
This book is several things, suggests Blight, but he hits it best when he characterizes it as a "discussion of four Americans in search of their country's history." In doing so, he gives us more than a history lesson: he presents an introspective journey into America's most complex and enigmatic historical event through the minds of four exceptional storytellers. He offers us the opportunity to revisit a monumental tragedy and thereby invites us to probe its meaning. If we do, we will not only be reacquainted with a defining American moment but we will also learn more about who America is, and why. John David Smith - Charlotte Observer
Review
David Blight has written a searching and suggestive book. James T. Crouse - Times Higher Education
Review
Overall a valuable contribution to historical understanding. Andrew Delbanco - New York Review of Books
Review
"William Nester's insightful book demonstrates the brilliance of Abraham Lincoln and his use of power."and#8212;Frank J. Williams, Civil War Monitor
Review
andquot;The Age of Lincoln shows that Nester is able to see the big picture.andquot;andmdash;Civil War Book Review
Synopsis
Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, a century after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King, Jr., declared, "One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free." He delivered this speech just three years after the Virginia Civil War Commission published a guide proclaiming that "the Centennial is no time for finding fault or placing blame or fighting the issues all over again."
David Blight takes his readers back to the centennial celebration to determine how Americans then made sense of the suffering, loss, and liberation that had wracked the United States a century earlier. Amid cold war politics and civil rights protest, four of America's most incisive writers explored the gulf between remembrance and reality. Robert Penn Warren, the southern-reared poet-novelist who recanted his support of segregation; Bruce Catton, the journalist and U.S. Navy officer who became a popular Civil War historian; Edmund Wilson, the century's preeminent literary critic; and James Baldwin, the searing African-American essayist and activist--each exposed America's triumphalist memory of the war. And each, in his own way, demanded a reckoning with the tragic consequences it spawned.
Blight illuminates not only mid-twentieth-century America's sense of itself but also the dynamic, ever-changing nature of Civil War memory. On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the war, we have an invaluable perspective on how this conflict continues to shape the country's political debates, national identity, and sense of purpose.
Synopsis
David Blight takes his readers back to the Civil War's centennial celebration to determine how Americans made sense of the suffering, loss, and liberation a century earlier. He shows how four of America's most incisive writers--Robert Penn Warren, Bruce Catton, Edmund Wilson, and James Baldwin--explored the gulf between remembrance and reality.
Synopsis
2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Cleveland Foundation
About the Author
WILLIAM NESTER is a professor at St. Johnand#8217;s University in New York City and the author of more than thirty books on various aspects of international relations, including four for Potomac Books: The Revolutionary Years, 1775and#8211;1789; The Hamiltonian Vision, 1789and#8211;1800; The Jeffersonian Vision, 1801and#8211;1815; and The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815and#8211;1848. He lives in New York City.