Abraham Lincoln And the Road to Emancipation 1861-1865 - Hardcover

Klingman, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670867543 ISBN 13: 9780670867547

Publisher: Viking, 2001

Synopsis

The Emancipation Proclamation forever changed the course of American history. In Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, William Klingaman provides a much-needed popular history of the making of the Emancipation Proclamation and its subsequent impact on race relations in America.In the tradition of Garry Wills's award-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Klingaman reconstructs the events that led to Lincoln's momentous decision. He takes us from Lincoln's inauguration through the outbreak of the Civil War and the Confederates' early military victories. Despite the Abolitionists' urging, Lincoln was reluctant to issue an edict freeing the slaves lest it alienate loyal border states. A succession of military reverses led Lincoln to try to obtain congressional approval of gradual, compensated emancipation. But when all his plans failed, Lincoln finally began drafting an emancipation proclamation as a military weapon -- what he described as his "last card" against the rebellion.Finally issued on January I, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end the war -- or slavery -- overnight, and Klingaman follows the story through two more years of bloody war before final Union victory and Lincoln's tragic assassination. The book concludes with a brief discussion of how the Emancipation Proclamation -- its language and the circumstances in which it was issued -- have shaped American history.

About this title

About the Author:

William K. Klingaman is the author of several books of cultural history, including 1919: The Year Our World Began and 1929: The Year of the Great Crash.

Synopsis:

Assesses the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's sometimes ambivalent abolitionist sympathies on the eventual end of slavery.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0670867543
• ISBN 13: 9780670867547
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344