The American Civil War & Reconstruction
Whistlestop Bookshop’s first store opened in Gettysburg in 1985. Eventually, over 19 years there, our Civil War section grew to be three large wall cases. A disproportionate percentage of it, naturally, was about the battle of Gettysburg and biographies of those who fought there. In addition to this book selling experience, my southern upbringing and Army family life created a lifelong interest in the War Between the States and all of its complexities. It is an understandable national obsession, considering how the first half of our nation’s history contributed to its ferocity, and the second half of our history has been the struggle to live with and understand the consequences.
1861: The Lost Peace
1861: The Lost Peace
From an award-winning historian and New York Times bestselling author, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s decision to go to war against the Confederacy.
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.
Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden “a great man” even as Lincoln jousted with him. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet—the finest in history—which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death. A perfect read for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate.
Jay Winik is an American historian and New York Times bestselling author, known for his award-winning April 1865: The Month That Saved America and celebrated for his innovative tellings of history. Winik is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sat on the board of trustees of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He graduated from Yale College with honors, and holds a Masters from the London School of Economics with distinction, as well as a Ph.D. from Yale University.