Home Books 1861: The Lost Peace

1861: The Lost Peace

1861: The Lost Peace

by Jay Winik

Grand Central Publishing ·2025 ·304 pages
New Release
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About This Book

From award-winning historian and New York Times bestselling author of April 1865: The Month That Saved America Jay Winick, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's decision to go to war against the Confederacy. 1861: The Lost Peace>/i> is the story of President Lincoln's far-reaching, difficult, and most courageous decision, a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions. Through Jay Winick's singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden "a great man" even as Lincoln jousted with him. They'll be inside and among Lincoln's cabinet--the finest in history--which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and they will see a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of the young nation slowly choking in its own blood. A perfect read for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate.


Reviews

"The overarching story is a familiar but important one for students of history ..."

Andrew Demillo· Associated Press Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Winik knows how to write a pulsating narrative, which is no easy task when every reader who begins the book will know precisely how it ends."

Harold Holzer· The Wall Street Journal Top of the Pile

"A fascinating look at some of the less familiar history in the days leading up to the Civil War."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A relatively little-known account of prewar efforts to reach a consensus."

Jacqueline Parascandola· Library Journal Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"What Winik offers instead is a portrait of two sides talking past each other, rather than with each other."

Adam Gopnik· The New Yorker Read review ↗ Near the Top

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