Civil War Book Group

The Civil War Book Group will broaden its scope to become the American History Book Club, focusing on the 1760 to 1900 time period.  The May book is Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War by Elizabeth Varom (Oxford University Press, $19.95).  Varon captures the events swirling around that well remembered-but not well understood-moment when the Civil War ended. She depicts the final battles in Virginia, when Grant's troops surrounded Lee's half-starved army, the meeting of the generals at the McLean House, and the shocked reaction as news of the surrender spread like an electric charge throughout the nation. But as Varon shows, the ink had hardly dried before both sides launched a bitter debate over the meaning of the war and the nation's future. For Grant, and for most in the North, the Union victory was one of right over wrong, a vindication of free society; Lee, in contrast, believed that the Union victory was one of might over right: the vast impersonal Northern war machine had worn down a valorous and unbowed South. Lee was committed to peace, but committed, too, to the restoration of the South's political power within the Union.

Event date: 

Saturday, May 23, 2015 - 10:00am
Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War By Elizabeth R. Varon Cover Image
$21.99
ISBN: 9780190217860
Availability: Not on our shelves. Usually arrives at The Bookworm in 4-7 days from distributor/publisher.
Published: Oxford University Press, USA - April 15th, 2015

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