The New York Times disunion 106 articles from The New York Times Opinionator

Book - 2013

"Modern historians revisit and reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's election to the Emancipation Proclamation."

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Subjects
Published
New York : Black Dog & Leventhal Pub c2013.
Language
English
Other Authors
Edward L. Widmer (-), Clay Risen, George Kalogerakis
Item Description
"Modern historians revisit and reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's election to the Emancipation Proclamation"
Physical Description
xiv, 450 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781579129286
  • Secession
  • The war begins
  • Bull Run
  • 1862
  • The war expands
  • Toward emancipation.
Review by Booklist Review

In November 2010, the New York Times opened a website, Disunion, in which Civil War scholars, journalists, and amateur historians have continued to contribute hundreds of essays, biographical sketches, and general commentary about our greatest national trial. Widmer, a historian at Brown University, has selected 106 of these articles, which proceed chronologically from the election of Lincoln to the Emancipation Proclamation. In the first grouping of essays, various aspects of the secession crisis are examined, including a searing portrait of President Buchanan and an often neglected view of antisecession Southerners. In another grouping, a particularly intriguing essay explores Lincoln's audacious plan to use government bonds to eliminate slavery in the border states. As a whole, the essays are well written, wide ranging and very informative, even for many Civil War specialists. This work will be an ideal addition to Civil War collections for both public and academic libraries.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

From the annals of the New York Times Opinionator column and timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Brown University historian Widmer has pieced together a selection for readers both mildly and deeply interested in the Civil War. Did you know that four slave-holding states remained in the Union after the Civil War began? That President Lincoln was elected without a single electoral vote from the South? Or that West Virginia came into existence when the western part of Virginia "seceded from secession"? Tidbits like these populate pages culled from brief essays in the paper's online column, and the book's format allows for smaller, captivating stories to be told-the kind that are often over-looked in epic histories-like Lincoln's last visit with his step-mother or how Nick Biddle, an African-American servant to a captain in the Union Army, might have been the first to shed blood in hostility during the war. Well-known historians such as Ken Burns, Stephanie McCurry and Adam Goodheart are all represented in this absorbing and important series. B&W photos. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Review by Library Journal Review

In 2010, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War the New York Times launched the Disunion blog to offer essays-with the "snap, crackle and pop of lively online writing"-addressing the Civil War from a variety of angles. Widmer (assistant to the president for special projects, Brown Univ.), with two Times staff editors, has selected over 100 of the blog's pieces, presenting them in chronological parallel with the war years covered. Here are essays by some notable academics (e.g., David W. Blight), but more are by independent scholars (for example, Amanda Foreman, Harold Holzer) and popular interpreters such as Ken Burns and Winston Groom. The topics range from traditional discussions of President Lincoln, the war's generals, and major battles to essays on African Americans in the war and studies of other marginalized groups including women, immigrants, and Native Americans. Verdict The result is a lively anthology that documents the state of today's scholarship and popular opinion on the war. It is quite different from other new anthologies such as America's War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries, edited by Edward L. Ayers, which includes longer selections of older materials (including fiction) dating from 1852 to the present. This is recommended for most Civil War history collections.-Theresa McDevitt, Indiana Univ. Lib., PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Widmer, a Brown University historian, is joined by New York Times op-ed staff editors Risen and Kalogerakis in the masterful compilation of more than 100 short essays based on the award-winning Times Disunion blog (begun in 2010), which chronologically traces and reconsiders the War between the States, an event he believes still remains "a ghostly presence in American life." The collection sequentially launches with the secession crisis and moves through the Emancipation Proclamation, and the offerings are wonderfully multifarious. History scholar Louis Masur's insightful essay factors Lincoln's presidential election into the fray as deftly as Susan Schulten ably explores the war from a geographical perspective. War historian Adam Goodheart's contributions are consistent standouts and include a rich sketch of Harriet Tubman and pensive words about slaves at Christmastime. William Freehling considers the secession's impact through Confederate Gen. George Wythe Randolph's eyes, journalist Cate Lineberry offers an outstanding profile of Confederate spy Rose Greenhow and a jarring piece on juvenile soldiers, and military historian C. Kay Larson provides an article on the oft-overlooked presence of female wartime volunteers. Uniform in tone and thought-provoking content, the articles are supplemented by actual diary entries, artifact images, letters, pertinent cartography, photographs and poetry. The mood of the era is captured best through Carole Emberton's harrowingly detailed commentary on the scourge of war-borne smallpox, Terry L. Jones' deliberation on black militiamen and Widmer's own examination of Lincoln's portraiture, carefully manipulated "to give the Union a face--his own." Each of the assembled scholars, historians, academics and journalists crafts unique insights and viewpoints and through their collective dialogue, artistically contemplates the heft and enduring relevance of the Civil War. American history meets the "snap, crackle and pop of lively online writing" in this outstanding serialization.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.