Liberty and Union
Published on 22. March 2016
318 pages
978-1-5040-3403-6 (ISBN)
Description
The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner's penetrating analysis of the crisis of democracy during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
In Liberty and Union, David Herbert Donald persuasively examines one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. With the same wit, eloquence, and willingness to question received wisdom that define his acclaimed biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner, Donald suggests that it was the commonalities between North and South-and not their differences-that led to the earth-shattering conflict that was the Civil War and defined the chaotic years that followed.
Exploring the political, social, and economic impact of the war, emancipation, Reconstruction, and westward expansion, Donald combines history and philosophy, offering a bold and thought-provoking analysis that goes far in explaining the nation we live in today. Riveting, illuminating, and provocative, Liberty and Union sheds a brilliant light on a half-century of US history and addresses a perennial problem of democratic societies all over the world: how to reconcile majority rule and minority rights.
In Liberty and Union, David Herbert Donald persuasively examines one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. With the same wit, eloquence, and willingness to question received wisdom that define his acclaimed biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner, Donald suggests that it was the commonalities between North and South-and not their differences-that led to the earth-shattering conflict that was the Civil War and defined the chaotic years that followed.
Exploring the political, social, and economic impact of the war, emancipation, Reconstruction, and westward expansion, Donald combines history and philosophy, offering a bold and thought-provoking analysis that goes far in explaining the nation we live in today. Riveting, illuminating, and provocative, Liberty and Union sheds a brilliant light on a half-century of US history and addresses a perennial problem of democratic societies all over the world: how to reconcile majority rule and minority rights.
More details
Person
David Herbert Donald (1920-2009) was an American historian and the author of many books on the Civil War era, including
Lincoln (1995), a
New York Times bestseller widely regarded as the definitive biography of the US president. Donald twice won the Pulitzer Prize, for
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (1960) and
Look Homeward:
A Life of Thomas Wolfe (1987), and served as the Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard University. His other notable works include the influential essay collection
Lincoln Reconsidered (1956);
Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man (1970), the second volume in his acclaimed biography of the antislavery statesman; and
Liberty and Union (1978), a comprehensive analysis of the American scene from 1845 to 1890.
Content
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 E Pluribus Unum
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- 2 Equilibrium
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- 3 Testing
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- 4 Stalemate
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- 5 Experimentation
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- IX
- 6 The Limits of Innovation
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- 7 The American Compromise
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- 8 Reconciliation
- I
- II
- III
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
