|
Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
|
Buy Now
Lincoln's Last Speech - Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R642
Discovery Miles 6 420
You Save: R81
(11%)
|
|
|
Lincoln's Last Speech - Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion (Hardcover)
Series: Pivotal Moments in American History
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
On April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave his final speech to
thousands gathered in the rain outside the executive mansion in
Washington, D.C. Coming two days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at
Appomattox, and a week after the fall of Richmond, the crowd
expected a victory oration. Instead, they heard the President's
ideas about how best to proceed in returning the seceded states to
"proper practical relation " with the national government and how
to advance the status of freedmen in a nation soon to be without
slavery. After Lincoln's endorsement of limited black suffrage, one
listener had heard enough. Walking away, John Wilkes Booth
remarked, "That is the last speech he will ever make. " Three days
later, he made good on his threat. Significant in part because it
was his last, Lincoln's April 11th speech is also particularly
important for providing us with the president's final public
thoughts on the problem of reconstruction, a process, as he said
that night, "fraught with difficulty. " In Lincoln's Last Speech,
renowned historian and author Louis P. Masur uses the occasion of
this speech to trace the debate over reconstruction policies-which,
he shows, began not with war's end, but with the war's beginning.
Masur reveals how, from the start of the war, restoring the union
was foremost on Lincoln's mind, and between 1861 and 1865 he
pressed multiple plans of action. Even as battles raged, and the
odds of victory continued to shift, the aftermath of war was never
far from the thoughts of northern statesmen. Masur traces the
evolution of Lincoln's ideas and the debate over reconstruction
during the war, from the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
on December 8, 1863 to the Wade-Davis bill pushed through Congress
by radical Republicans in July 2 1864, and Lincoln's resulting
pocket veto. In addition to political reconstruction, Masur
examines the questions around social reconstruction, the plight of
the freedmen and the debate over the place of blacks in American
society. And he considers the implications of Lincoln's speech
after April 1865, when Andrew Johnson assumed office and the
battles over reconstruction ensued. Filling an important gap in the
Lincoln literature, Lincoln's Last Speech illuminates the disputed
question of reconstruction, from the earliest days of the Civil War
up through the president's final address, and allows us to retrace
the path that brought him and the nation to reunion.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
