1861

Most accounts of the Civil War begin with cannon fire and move quickly to the generals. Adam Goodheart starts earlier and looks wider, tracing the months in which the Union broke apart and the country's founding promises were fought over anew. His argument is that this was a second American revolution, one that put Abraham Lincoln on the road to greatness and set millions of enslaved people on the road to freedom. The book is built around people who rarely appear in standard histories. There is an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer's wife, a band of idealistic German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, and a community of Virginia slaves who made their own bid for liberty. A young college professor who would later become president also has a place in the story. Their courage and decisions shaped the conflict well away from the battlefields. The narrative moves across the whole country, from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, and from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island. Together these scenes show the Union at its moment of crisis, when ordinary and extraordinary people alike had to choose a side. The book includes black-and-white photographs and illustrations.