Flint Memorial Library (North Reading)

America aflame, how the Civil War created a nation, David Goldfield

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [591]-615) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

America aflame

bibliography

639161278

David Goldfield

how the Civil War created a nation

In this history, the author offers a new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Where past scholars have limned the war as a triumph of freedom, this author sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere. As the Second Great Awakening surged through America, political questions became matters of good and evil to be fought to the death. The price of that failure was horrific, but the carnage accomplished what statesmen could not

A nation reborn -- Crusades -- Empire -- Revolutions -- Railroaded -- Blood on the Plains -- Revival -- The boatman -- The tug comes -- Just causes -- Shiloh awakening -- Born in a day -- Blood and transcendence -- A new nation -- War is cruelty -- One nation, indivisible -- The age of reason -- Aspirations -- A golden moment -- The golden spike -- Political science -- Let it be -- Centennial