Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.

MCPHERSON, James M.

Item Number: 138912

Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1988.

First Easton Press edition of the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in full leather, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, front and rear panels, raised bands, all edges gilt, ribbon bound in to each volume. Signed by the author in each volume on the half-title page as follows, “We are all Americans James McPherson.” In fine condition. A unique set.

The book's title "Battle Cry of Freedom" refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict. The South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war, slavery, and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. The standard one-volume history of the Civil War. Listed on Modern Library's 100 great nonfiction books of the twentieth century.