Congress At War

Author : Fergus M. Bordewich
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2021-01-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101974247

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Congress at War by Fergus M. Bordewich Pdf

The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War--a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict. This brilliantly argued new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led the Union to victory and gives us a vivid account of the essential role Congress played in winning the war. Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress--Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the proslavery Clement Vallandigham--Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican party shaped one of the most dynamic and consequential periods in American history. From reinventing the nation's financial system to pushing President Lincoln to emancipate the slaves to the planning for Reconstruction, Congress undertook drastic measures to defeat the Confederacy, in the process laying the foundation for a strong central government that came fully into being in the twentieth century. Brimming with drama and outsize characters, Congress at War is also one of the most original books about the Civil War to appear in years and will change the way we understand the conflict.

Author : Charles A. Stevenson
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 111 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2007-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781597971812

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Congress at War by Charles A. Stevenson Pdf

A comprehensive and concise overview of Congress's wartime legislation

Author : Joanne B. Freeman
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2018-09-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9780374717612

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The Field of Blood by Joanne B. Freeman Pdf

The previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn’t happen in a vacuum. Freeman’s dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities—the feel, sense, and sound of it—as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.

Author : Fergus M. Bordewich
Publisher : Knopf
Page : 493 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : History
ISBN : 9780451494443

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Congress at War by Fergus M. Bordewich Pdf

The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War-placing a dynamic House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict.

Author : Margaret E. Wagner,Gary W. Gallagher,Paul Finkelman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 978 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2009-11-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9781439148846

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The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference by Margaret E. Wagner,Gary W. Gallagher,Paul Finkelman Pdf

History.

Author : David M. Kennedy
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 1017 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2007-10-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9781416553069

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The Library of Congress World War II Companion by David M. Kennedy Pdf

An indispensable reference on World War II produced by the Library of Congress and edited by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David M. Kennedy. With hundreds of illustrations and quotations from contemporary documents, this will be the most authoritative popular reference on World War II. The noted historian John Keegan called World War II "the largest single event in human history." More than sixty years after it ended, that war continues to shape our world. Going far beyond accounts of the major battles, The Library of Congress World War II Companion examines, in a unique and engaging manner, this devastating conflict, its causes, conduct, and aftermath. It considers the politics that shaped the involvement of the major combatants; military leadership and the characteristics of major Allied and Axis armed services; the weaponry that resulted in the war's unprecedented destruction, as well as debates over the use of these weapons; the roles of resistance groups and underground fighters; war crimes; daily life during wartime; the uses of propaganda; and much more. Drawn from the unparalleled collections of the institution that has been called "America's Memory," The Library of Congress World War II Companion includes excerpts from contemporary letters, journals, pamphlets, and other documents, as well as first-person accounts recorded by the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. The text is complemented by more than 150 illustrations. Organized into topical chapters (such as "The Media War," "War Crimes and the Holocaust," and two chapters on "Military Operations" that cover the important battles), the book also include readers to navigate through the rich store of information in these pages. Filled with facts and figures, information about unusual aspects of the war, and moving personal accounts, this remarkable volume will be indispensable to anyone who wishes to understand the World War II era and its continuing reverberations.

Author : David J. Barron
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2016-10-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9781451681970

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Waging War by David J. Barron Pdf

“Vivid…Barron has given us a rich and detailed history.” —The New York Times Book Review “Ambitious...a deep history and a thoughtful inquiry into how the constitutional system of checks and balances has functioned when it comes to waging war and making peace.” —The Washington Post A timely account of a raging debate: The history of the ongoing struggle between the presidents and Congress over who has the power to declare and wage war. The Constitution states that it is Congress that declares war, but it is the presidents who have more often taken us to war and decided how to wage it. In Waging War, David J. Barron opens with an account of George Washington and the Continental Congress over Washington’s plan to burn New York City before the British invasion. Congress ordered him not to, and he obeyed. Barron takes us through all the wars that followed: 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American war, World Wars One and Two, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and now, most spectacularly, the War on Terror. Congress has criticized George W. Bush for being too aggressive and Barack Obama for not being aggressive enough, but it avoids a vote on the matter. By recounting how our presidents have declared and waged wars, Barron shows that these executives have had to get their way without openly defying Congress. Waging War shows us our country’s revered and colorful presidents at their most trying times—Washington, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Johnson, both Bushes, and Obama. Their wars have made heroes of some and victims of others, but most have proved adept at getting their way over reluctant or hostile Congresses. The next president will face this challenge immediately—and the Constitution and its fragile system of checks and balances will once again be at the forefront of the national debate.

Author : Fergus M. Bordewich
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2017-02-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781451692112

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The First Congress by Fergus M. Bordewich Pdf

"The little known story of perhaps the most productive Congress in US history, the First Federal Congress of 1789-1791. The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed--as many at the time feared it would--it's possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today. The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states' rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government. Other issues, such as slavery, would fester for decades before being resolved. The First Congress tells the dramatic story of the two remarkable years when Washington, Madison, and their dedicated colleagues struggled to successfully create our government, an achievement that has lasted to the present day."--Publisher website.

Author : LeeAnna Keith
Publisher : Hill and Wang
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781429947589

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When It Was Grand by LeeAnna Keith Pdf

A group biography of the activists who defended human rights and defined the Republican Party’s greatest hour In 1862, the ardent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison summarized the events that were tearing apart the United States: “There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was Slavery.” Garrison’s simple statement expresses the essential truths at the heart of LeeAnna Keith’s When It Was Grand. Here is the full story, dramatically told, of the Radical Republicans—the champions of abolition who helped found a new political party and turn it toward the extirpation of slavery. Keith introduces us to the idealistic Massachusetts preachers and philanthropists, rugged Midwestern politicians, and African American activists who collaborated to protect escaped slaves from their captors, to create and defend black military regiments and win the contest for the soul of their party. Keith’s fast-paced, deeply researched narrative gives us new perspective on figures ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Brown, to the gruff antislavery general John Fremont and his astute wife, Jessie Benton Fremont, and the radicals’ sometime critic and sometime partner Abraham Lincoln. In the 1850s and 1860s, a powerful faction of the Republican Party stood for a demanding ideal of racial justice—and insisted that their party and nation live up to it. Here is a colorful, definitive account of their indelible accomplishment.

Author : Robert David Johnson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2005-11-21
Category : History
ISBN : 1139447440

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Congress and the Cold War by Robert David Johnson Pdf

The first historical interpretation of the congressional response to the entire Cold War. Using a wide variety of sources, including several manuscript collections opened specifically for this study, the book challenges the popular and scholarly image of a weak Cold War Congress, in which the unbalanced relationship between the legislative and executive branches culminated in the escalation of the US commitment in Vietnam, which in turn paved the way for a congressional resurgence best symbolized by the passage of the War Powers Act in 1973. Instead, understanding the congressional response to the Cold War requires a more flexible conception of the congressional role in foreign policy, focused on three facets of legislative power: the use of spending measures; the internal workings of a Congress increasingly dominated by subcommittees; and the ability of individual legislators to affect foreign affairs by changing the way that policymakers and the public considered international questions.

Author : Margaret E. Wagner
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2017-05-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781620409831

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America and the Great War by Margaret E. Wagner Pdf

Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Titles of the Year for 2017 "A uniquely colorful chronicle of this dramatic and convulsive chapter in American--and world--history. It's an epic tale, and here it is wondrously well told." --David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of FREEDOM FROM FEAR From August 1914 through March 1917, Americans were increasingly horrified at the unprecedented destruction of the First World War. While sending massive assistance to the conflict's victims, most Americans opposed direct involvement. Their country was immersed in its own internal struggles, including attempts to curb the power of business monopolies, reform labor practices, secure proper treatment for millions of recent immigrants, and expand American democracy. Yet from the first, the war deeply affected American emotions and the nation's commercial, financial, and political interests. The menace from German U-boats and failure of U.S. attempts at mediation finally led to a declaration of war, signed by President Wilson on April 6, 1917. America and the Great War commemorates the centennial of that turning point in American history. Chronicling the United States in neutrality and in conflict, it presents events and arguments, political and military battles, bitter tragedies and epic achievements that marked U.S. involvement in the first modern war. Drawing on the matchless resources of the Library of Congress, the book includes many eyewitness accounts and more than 250 color and black-and-white images, many never before published. With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David M. Kennedy, America and the Great War brings to life the tempestuous era from which the United States emerged as a major world power.

Author : Margaret E. Wagner
Publisher : Little Brown
Page : 429 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-20
Category : United States
ISBN : 0316193631

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The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War by Margaret E. Wagner Pdf

With striking visuals from the Library of Congress' unparalleled archive, this book is an authoritative and engaging narrative of the domestic conflict that determined the course of American history. A detailed chronological timeline of the war captures the harrowing intensity of 19th-century warfare in first-hand accounts from soldiers, nurses, and front-line journalists.

Author : Brien Hallett
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2012-08-13
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781107026926

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Declaring War by Brien Hallett Pdf

Offers an historical, legal, constitutional, moral and philosophical analysis of the declarations of 1812, 1898 and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 860 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Iraq-Kuwait Crisis, 1990-1991
ISBN : UIUC:30112004365182

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Conduct of the Persian Gulf War by Anonim Pdf

Author : Allan G. Bogue
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : History
ISBN : 0521357055

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The Congressman's Civil War by Allan G. Bogue Pdf

This book explores important aspects of the American Civil War from the perspective of Capital Hill.