1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and the War They Failed to See

摘要

Histories devoted to a single year would fill a substantial bookcase, and 1858 offers plenty of gripping material. Popular historian Bruce Chad-wick (The Reel Civil War, Traveling the Underground Railroad) is no revisionist. He writes a spirited but traditional account of the year's events, concentrating on leading figures but giving equal time to several laboring in obscurity who would soon vault to national prominence and immortality. All Civil War prequels give prominent a place to James Buchanan, a wrong-headed leader who consistently wins polls as America s worst president. Chadwick paints the time-honored portrait of the hopeless bumbler who mishandled the slavery question and contributed to the breakup of the Democratic Party by conducting a catastrophic feud with the other leading Democrat, Stephen Douglas. No historian wants to rehabilitate Buchanan, but many question the weakling label. Jean Baker, for example, considers him the last Jackson-ian, a strong president who favored the South and knew exactly what he wanted.