Bruce Catton's America

No one has ever told America's story with more grace, clarity, and emotional power than Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton. In his books, ranging from the celebrated Civil War trilogies to the account of his boyhood in back-country Michigan, Catton brought the people of the past to such vivid life that he became the nation's best-loved and most widely read historian.


Bruce Catton's friend and associate for many years, Oliver Jensen, has assembled this volume of selections of Catton's works - as a memorial to the man and a tribute to the historian. The excerpts chosen for Bruce Catton's America include portions of A Stillness at Appomattox, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; The American Heritage History of the Civil War, awarded a special Pulitzer Prize Citation; and representative selections from many other books and articles. The book also includes several previously unpublished pieces.


Bruce Catton helped to create American Heritage magazine in 1954 and continued to influence it for the next twenty-four years - first as editor, then as senior editor and a frequent contributor. He spent much of his adult life as a newspaperman in the Midwest and Washington, D.C., and became a historian "by logical extension." Although best known as the greatest writer on the Civil War, he had wide-ranging interests.


To those who are familiar with Bruce Catton's work, these selections will appear as old friends whose company never fails to provide enjoyment, stimulation, and a deep sense of worth. For those who have not yet read him, Bruce Catton's America will be an introduction to historical writing at its best.