Freedom's Messy Triumph

摘要

Which American president was described by his top general as "nothing more than a well-meaning baboon"? Abraham Lincoln, who thought no better of General George McClellan. Convinced that a vast Confederate army lay in wait for him, McClellan hesitated to march on Richmond, Virginia, the rebel capital. "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time," sighed Lincoln. When McClellan at last started creeping towards Richmond, he was embarrassed to discover that some of the imposing gun emplacements that had scared him were only painted logs.rnDavid Reynolds, a Cambridge don, has written a one-volume history of the United States, from the mound-builders of the 11th century to the challenges facing President Barack Obama. With so much ground to cover, the pace is inevitably frenetic, and the book includes little material that one could not find elsewhere. Lincoln's sigh, quoted above, is a bit of an old chestnut. But it tells us somethingrnabout the great president's character. In the same way, Mr Reynolds's book provides an entertaining and fair-minded introduction to American history.