| Description |
1 online resource (632 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color). |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [591]-615) and index. |
| Contents |
A nation reborn -- Crusades -- Empire -- Revolutions -- Railroaded -- Blood on the Plains -- Revival -- The boatman -- The tug comes -- Just causes -- Shiloh awakening -- Born in a day -- Blood and transcendence -- A new nation -- War is cruelty -- One nation, indivisible -- The age of reason -- Aspirations -- A golden moment -- The golden spike -- Political science -- Let it be -- Centennial. |
| Summary |
In this history, the author offers a new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom." Where past scholars have limned the war as a triumph of freedom, this author sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere. As the Second Great Awakening surged through America, political questions became matters of good and evil to be fought to the death. The price of that failure was horrific, but the carnage accomplished what statesmen could not. |
| Subject |
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Influence.
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United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Causes.
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United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns.
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United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Religious aspects.
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United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social aspects.
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National characteristics, American.
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| Genre |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Goldfield, David R., 1944- America aflame. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2011 9781596917026 (DLC) 2010025241 (OCoLC)639161278 |
| ISBN |
9781608193745 (electronic bk.) |
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1608193748 (electronic bk.) |
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