First published in 1956, this is an account of the arming of the Union forces in the Civil War, and of Lincoln's part in it. It has never been told in any comprehensive way before, and shows Lincoln in a new and engaging light.Lincoln was determined to win the war, yet his generals seemed unable to give him a victory, so he reasoned that a more efficient weapon would have to be invented. However, his main opponent, General James W. Ripley, who sat in charge of army ordnance, believe...

Originally published in 1956, in this book Benjamin P. Thomas tells the story of the village where Abraham Lincoln lived from 1831 to 1837. His three-part examination of the village often referred to as Lincoln's "Alma Mater" features the founding and early history of New Salem, Lincoln's impact on the village and its effect on him, and the story of the Lincoln legend and the reconstruction of the town.Thomas argues convincingly that New Salem was the town where Lincoln acquired fai...

Part One of this book is devoted to the history of New Salem. It tells who the inhabitants were, how they lived, and how they looked on life, giving Lincoln faith in people and himself. In Part Two, Lincoln's activities are discussed, and the meaning of the New Salem years in his development is appraised, introducing us to the people who knew, influenced, and befriended Lincoln and how he made a living in various ways and was elected to the legislature. Part Three explains the growth of th...

Long considered a classic, Benjamin P. Thomas's Abraham Lincoln: A Biography takes an incisive look at one of American history's greatest figures. Originally published in 1952 to wide acclaim, this eloquent account rises above previously romanticized depictions of the sixteenth president to reveal the real Lincoln: a complex, shrewd, and dynamic individual whose exceptional life has long intrigued the public.Thomas traces the president from his hardscrabble beginnings and ...

This volume gathers the best previously unpublished and uncollected writings on Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln scholarship by one of his great biographers, Benjamin P. Thomas.A skilled historian and a masterful storyteller himself, Thomas was widely regarded as the greatest Lincoln historian of his generation. With these essays, he combines historical depth with narrative grace in delineating Lincoln's qualities as a humorist, lawyer, and politician. From colorful tall tales to clever...

During the Civil War, Sylvanus Cadwallader, a war correspondent employed first by the Chicago Times and later for the New York Herald, was attached to General Grant’s headquarters from 1862 to 1865. Three Years with Grant is his account of that period.As a portrait of Grant, the personality and the military leader, as a civilian’s picture of how the war was fought at the command level, and, above all, as a hitherto unknown primary source of Civil War history, as a...

At the time of his death, renowned Lincoln biographer Benjamin Thomas was at work on a life of one of the most controversial figures in American history: Edwin McMasters Stanton, the man who marshaled the military forces of the Union in the Civil War and played a crucial role in the only presidential impeachment trial in our history. Harold Hyman, himself a prize-winning historian, undertook to carry on from the advanced point in research and writing that Thomas had reached.The res...

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of We Are Lincoln Men comes a stunning portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency.“A book of investigative tenacity, interpretive boldness and almost acrobatic balance” (The Chicago Tribune), Lincoln brilliantly depicts Abraham Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divide...

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States and the Union general who was imperative for the North's victory in the Civil War. His autobiography has long become legendary and can be found here in a complete edition. In 70 detailed chapters Grant tells the story of his life from his birth and boyhood to his graduation at West Point, the Mexican War, the outbreak of the rebellion and his merits in the the civil war to the day of the march to Washington D.C.

One of the most influential books of the past fifty years, Team of Rivals is Pulitzer Prize–winning author and esteemed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s modern classic about the political genius of Abraham Lincoln, his unlikely presidency, and his cabinet of former political foes.Winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize and the inspiration for the Oscar Award winning–film Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, directed by Steven S...

This first volume of Shelby Foote's classic narrative of the Civil War opens with Jefferson Davis’s farewell to the United Senate and ends on the bloody battlefields of Antietam and Perryville, as the full, horrible scope of America’s great war becomes clear. Exhaustively researched and masterfully written, Foote’s epic account of the Civil War unfolds like a classic novel.Includes maps throughout."Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narra...

Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous...