This Great Struggle
America's Civil War
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- $33.99
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- $33.99
Publisher Description
Referring to the war that was raging across parts of the American landscape, Abraham Lincoln told Congress in 1862, "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth." Lincoln recognized what was at stake in the American Civil War: not only freedom for 3.5 million slaves but also survival of self-government in the last place on earth where it could have the opportunity of developing freely.
Noted historian Steven E. Woodworth tells the story of what many regard as the defining event in United States history. While covering all theaters of war, he emphasizes the importance of action in the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River in determining its outcome. Woodworth argues that the Civil War had a distinct purpose that was understood by most of its participants: it was primarily a conflict over the issue of slavery. The soldiers who filled the ranks of the armies on both sides knew what they were fighting for. The outcome of the war—after its beginnings at Fort Sumter to the Confederate surrender four years later—was the result of the actions and decisions made by those soldiers and millions of other Americans. Written in clear and compelling fashion, This Great Struggle is their story—and ours.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Woodworth, of Texas Christian University, enhances his position in the front rank of Civil War scholars. He makes a strong case for three controversial points. First, the Civil War was about slavery. The fundamental dispute over the "peculiar institution" had continually defied peaceful resolution; state's rights, tariffs, all the other wedge issues were structured by slavery; and from the war's beginning both sides knew why they were really fighting. Second, Woodworth establishes the war's crucial sector as between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The eastern theater rapidly stalemated; only in the west was there space to sustain the large-scale maneuver war that gave full scope to the Union's industrial superiority and to developed generals like Grant and Sherman. Third, Woodworth demonstrates that while the Union's conventional victory was "clear and overwhelming," Reconstruction was an unconventional phase of the war "not quite open war but not quite peace" in which the advantage rested with the vanquished South. A desperate commitment to sustaining white supremacy outlasted the North's will to complete the transformation of American society. This is a well-crafted, comprehensively researched overview of America's central conflict
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