Offers insights into questions and debates about America's greatest historical crisis - the Civil War. This work reflects from Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief to what might have happened if the South had won. It distills the wisdom of many years of teaching and writing about the meaning of the war and about slavery and its abolition.

Preface Acknowledgments I. Slavery and the Coming of War 1. And the War Came 2. Escape and Revolt in Black and White II. The Lost Cause Revisited 3. The Confederacy: A House Divided? 4. Was the Best Defense a Good Offense? Jefferson Davis and Confederate Strategies 5. The Saratoga That Wasn't: The Impact of Antietam Abroad 6. To Conquer a Peace? Lee's Goals in the Gettysburg Campaign 7. The Last Rebel: Jesse James 8. Long-Legged Yankee Lies: The Lost Cause Textbook Crusade III. Architects of Victory 9. "We Stand by Each Other Always": Grant and Sherman 10. The Hard Hand of War 11. Unvexed to the Sea: Lincoln, Grant, and the Vicksburg Campaign IV. Home Front and Battle Front 12. Brahmins at War 13. "Spend Much Time in Reading the Daily Papers": The Press and Army Morale in the Civil War 14. No Peace Without Victory, 1861-1865 V. Lincoln 15. To Remember That He Had Lived 16. "As Commander-in-Chief I Have a Right to Take Any Measure Which May Best Subdue the Enemy" Notes Index

"Essays which collectively illustrate his customary mastery of the field."--John Y. Simon, The Journal of Southern History "Non-fiction books, especially history, rarely earn praise as 'page-turners.' James M. McPherson makes the feat seem routine. A satisfying and insightful set of ruminations that will appeal to both specialists and general readers. Reading his book of essays might be no substitute for having attended his former seminars at Princeton University, but it might be as close a book--and most readers--will get to doing so."--Christopher Phillips, Civil War Book Review "In "This Mighty Scourge" -- a riveting collection of 16 masterfully written essays -- James M. McPherson again demonstrates that he is our greatest historian of the war...they stand as a remarkably elegant and clarifying narrative exploration of the most basic questions concerning the Civil War, issues over which scholars and activists still contend..."This Mighty Scourge," in fact, is an exemplary exercise in the contribution a great historian and eloquent writer can make to a people's understanding of themselves."--The Los Angeles Times "For readers unfamiliar with McPherson's work, [This Mighty Scourge] provides a useful introduction -- one that, it is to be hoped, will lead them to his masterwork, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988) -- and for those who know that work, it provides numerous interesting footnotes."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post "It will seduce anyone, Civil War neophyte or fanatic, for its authority and judgments...There is not a bad chapter in this book. This Mighty Scourge is a marvelous read from a master historian. Like all good history, what it makes you want to do is know more."--The Boston Globe "One of the givens in American history is that we will always find new ways to look at the Civil War. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson reinforces that with THIS MIGHTY SCOURGE, a fascinating collection of essays on aspects of the War Between the States . . . Civil War a buffs will find THIS MIGHTY SCOURGE to be a first-class addition to the genre."--St. Louis Times-Dispatch "A smooth narrative that addresses some of the biggest questions of the Civil War: why did it start- why did the South lose- what motivated the men who fought on both sides- how do we evaluate the top leaders--including Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses G. Grant-- McPherson goes about answering these and other questions in his usual graceful style, underscored by a thorough grasp of myriad primary and secondary sources on virtually every aspect of the conflict. He forthrightly expresses his opinions while backing them up with well-reasoned arguments, whether challenging the 'Lost Cause' argument about why the South lost, or supporting the proposition that it was slavery--and not states' rights--that was the main cause of the war. This strong addition to the massive Civil War canon will appeal to all readers."--Publishers Weekly "This anthology is one of McPherson's finest works and will be warmly received by any Civil War reader."--Army Magazine "Brings a critical intelligence to central questions concerning the war."--Kirkus Reviews "These 16 essays--many previously published in The New York Review of Books, all revised so that they form a coherent whole--ask the big questions of the Civil War: Why was it fought? Why did the South lose? What was the wa's effect on those who lived through it? Addressing recent historiography, McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is both masterly and graceful."--New York Times Book Review

Selling point: Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War Selling point: Offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history Selling point: Written by America's preeminent Civil War historian, James M. McPherson

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He has published numerous volumes on the Civil War, including Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War, and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, which won the prestigious Lincoln Prize in 1998.

Selling point: Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War Selling point: Offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history Selling point: Written by America's preeminent Civil War historian, James M. McPherson