Jay Winik
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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Civil War -> Campaigns -> Appomattox
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Civil War -> Campaigns -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Civil War -> General
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Total reviews: 196
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
The Rebirth of America 5 out of 5 stars.
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Alot of people assume that the Civil War abruptly ended at Appomattox and that our nation simply healed itself. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jay Winik argues that April 1865 was perhaps the most crucial period of time in our history, even more so than July 1776. While the Founding Fathers may have established a set of ideals, it was the Civil War that put them to the test. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, "...testing whether that nation or any nation can long endure". The Civil War never fully realized those ideals. It took over 100 years for civil rights laws to be passed and the process is still incomplete. But April 1865 was the painful start of that process of rebirth which saved our country.
What is unique about the American Civil war is that the nation actually did heal itself, unlike many other civil wars which degenerated into chaos, fragmentation, and prolonged guerilla warfare. All of these things could have happened in America had it not been for a few high-minded individuals from both sides of the conflict who put their personal animosities and ambitions aside for the good of the nation as a whole. Lincoln was the foremost of these individuals, but his assassination threatened to end any reconciliation between the north and the south. It was left to others to carry out that task.
Ironically, it was the warriors, the generals, who were most instrumental in making that happen. They were the ones who took the high road while many politicians succumbed to short-sighted and petty vindictiveness. Many southerners refused to accept defeat and wanted to disband their armies and carry out a guerilla war. Jefferson Davis was the foremost of these individuals. Rather than demonize Davis as a coward, as so many historians have done, Winik portrays him as a brave but tragic man who could never compromise his beliefs.
If there is one hero in this book, it is Robert E. Lee who could easily have been swayed into continuing the rebellion as a guerilla war. Lee, not Davis, was the only man in the south who had the respect and moral credibility among southerners to prevent that from happening. The other Confederate generals followed Lee's example, including Joe Johnston and the hard-bitten Nathan Bedford Forrest.
While many politicians in the north wanted to punish and subjugate the south as a conquered territory against Lincoln's wishes, it was the union generals like Grant and Sherman who showed generosity and magnanimity to their conquered foes. In fact, Sherman, who was so brutal to the south during the war, had to endure scathing criticism from his superiors in Washington for the lenient terms of surrender which he offered Joseph Johnston.
Jay Winik takes us back to the time and events at the end of the Civil War which are taken for granted in history classes but were as important as the founding of our nation. July 1776 may have been the first birth of our nation, but April 1865 was perhaps the more crucial rebirth.
Editorial Review:
One month in 1865 witnessed the frenzied fall of Richmond, a daring last-ditch Southern plan for guerrilla warfare, Lee's harrowing retreat, and then, Appomattox. It saw Lincoln's assassination just five days later and a near-successful plot to decapitate the Union government, followed by chaos and coup fears in the North, collapsed negotiations and continued bloodshed in the South, and finally, the start of national reconciliation.
In the end, April 1865 emerged as not just the tale of the war's denouement, but the story of the making of our nation.
Jay Winik offers a brilliant new look at the Civil War's final days that will forever change the way we see the war's end and the nation's new beginning. Uniquely set within the larger sweep of history and filled with rich profiles of outsize figures, fresh iconoclastic scholarship, and a gripping narrative, this is a masterful account of the thirty most pivotal days in the life of the United States.
