David Herbert Donald

Draws extensively on Lincoln's personal papers and legal writings to present a biography of the president

Lincoln

"Traces Sumner's life as the nation careens toward civil war. In a period when senators often exercised more influence than presidents, Senator Charles Sumner was one of the most powerful forces in the American government and remains one of the most controversial figures in American history. His uncompromising moral standards made him a lightning rod in an era fraught with conflict"--Publisher's description.

Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War

Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner’s penetrating analysis of the crisis of democracy during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. In Liberty and Union, David Herbert Donald persuasively examines one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. With the same wit, eloquence, and willingness to question received wisdom that define his acclaimed biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner, Donald suggests that it was the commonalities between North and South—and not their differences—that led to the earth-shattering conflict that was the Civil War and defined the chaotic years that followed. Exploring the political, social, and economic impact of the war, emancipation, Reconstruction, and westward expansion, Donald combines history and philosophy, offering a bold and thought-provoking analysis that goes far in explaining the nation we live in today. Riveting, illuminating, and provocative, Liberty and Union sheds a brilliant light on a half-century of US history and addresses a perennial problem of democratic societies all over the world: how to reconcile majority rule and minority rights.

Liberty and Union

Jean H. Baker

Michael Fitzgibbon Holt

Long considered the standard text in the field, The Civil War and Reconstruction--originally written by James G. Randall and revised by David Donald--is now available in a thoroughly revised new edition prepared by David Donald, Jean H. Baker, and Michael F. Holt.

The Civil War and Reconstruction

Offers a new perspective on the private life of the Civil War president through an examination of his few friendships and close associations, which were marked by estrangements in the face of political differences.

Abraham Lincoln and His Friends

We Are Lincoln Men

In this brilliant and illuminating portrait of our sixteenth president, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner David Herbert Donald examines the significance of friendship in Abraham Lincoln's life and the role it played in shaping his career and his presidency. Though Abraham Lincoln had hundreds of acquaintances and dozens of admirers, he had almost no intimate friends. Behind his mask of affability and endless stream of humorous anecdotes, he maintained an inviolate reserve that only a few were ever able to penetrate. Professor Donald's remarkable book offers a fresh way of looking at Abraham Lincoln, both as a man who needed friendship and as a leader who understood the importance of friendship in the management of men. Donald penetrates Lincoln's mysterious reserve to offer a new picture of the president's inner life and to explain his unsurpassed political skills.

A revised edition of the author's acclaimed biography of Lincoln and the Civil War era explores the role of Abraham Lincoln in nineteenth-century American history and provides two new essays on Lincoln's education and on his complex, frequently conflicting relationship to the rule of law. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Essays on the Civil War Era

Lincoln Reconsidered

Henry Steele Commager

Six essays explore the political, military, economic, social, and diplomatic reasons for the Union victory over the Confederacy.

Why the North Won the Civil War

WHY THE SOUTH LOST What led to the downfall of the Confederacy? The distinguished professors of history represented in this volume examine the following crucial factors in the South’s defeat: ECONOMIC—RICHARD N. CURRENT of the University of Wisconsin attributes the victory of the North to fundamental economic superiority so great that the civilian resources of the South were dissipated under the conditions of war. MILITARY—T. HARRY WILLIAMS of Louisiana State University cites the deficiencies of Confederate strategy and military leadership, evaluating the influence on both sides of Baron Jomini, a 19th-century strategist who stressed position warfare and a rapid tactical offensive. DIPLOMATIC—NORMAN A. GRAERNER of the University of Illinois holds that the basic reason England and France decided not to intervene on the side of the South was simply that to have done so would have violated the general principle of non-intervention to which they were committed. SOCIAL—DAVID DONALD of Columbia University offers the intriguing thesis that an excess of Southern democracy killed the Confederacy. From the ordinary man in the ranks to Jefferson Davis himself, too much emphasis was placed on individual freedom and not enough on military discipline. POLITICAL—DAVID M. POTTER of Stanford University suggests that the deficiencies of President Davis as a civil and military leader turner the balance, and that the South suffered from the lack of a second well-organized political party to force its leadership into competence.

Why The North Won The Civil War

Based on the papers of the Wolfe Estate, this biography reveals for the first time the personal life of the major American literary figure and examines his relations with his editors, literary agents, and contemporary writers.

David Herbert Donald

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