商品簡介
In Battle Cry Of Freedom,??James M. McPherson presented a fascinating, concise??general history of the defining American conflict.??With What They Fought For, he??focuses his considerable talents on what motivated??the individual soldier to fight. In an exceptional??and highly original Civil War analysis, McPherson??draws on the letters and diaries of nearly one??thousand Union and Confederate soldiers, giving voice??to the very men who risked their lives in the??conflict. His conclusion that most of them felt a keen??sense of patriotic and ideological commitment??counters the prevailing belief that Civil War soldiers??had little or no idea of what they were lighting??for. In their letters home and their diaries --??neither of which were subject to censorship -- these??men were able to comment, in writing, on a wide??variety of issues connected with their war??experience. Their insights show how deeply felt and??strongly held their convictions were and reveal far more??careful thought on the ideological issues of the??war than has previously been thought to be true.??Living only eighty years after the signing of the??Declaration of Independence, Civil War soldiers felt??the legacy and responsibility entrusted to them by??the Founding Fathers to to preserve fragile??democracy -- be it through secession or union -- as??something worth dying for. In What They??Fought For, McPherson takes individual voices??and places them in the great and terrible choir of??a country divided against itself. The result is??both an impressive scholarly tour de force and a??lively, highly accessible account of the sentiments??of both Northern and Southern soldiers during the??national trauma of the Civil War.
作者簡介
James M. McPherson is best known for his classic work on the American Civil War,?The Battle Cry of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. He is a professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.
