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A Worse Place Than Hell
How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
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A Worse Place Than Hell
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Pulitzer Prizeβwinning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the American Civil War and their enduring legacy.
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Description
December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln's government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound repercussions in the country's law, literature, politics, and popular mythology. Taken together, their stories offer a striking restatement of what it means to be American.
Guided by patriotism, driven by desire, all five moved toward singular destinies. A young Harvard intellectual steeped in courageous ideals, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. confronted grave challenges to his concept of duty. The one-eyed army chaplain Arthur Fuller pitted his frail body against the evils of slavery. Walt Whitman, a gay Brooklyn poet condemned by the guardians of propriety, and Louisa May Alcott, a struggling writer seeking an authentic voice and her father's admiration, tended soldiers' wracked bodies as nurses. On the other side of the national schism, John Pelham, a West Point cadet from Alabama, achieved a unique excellence in artillery tactics as he served a doomed and misbegotten cause.
A Worse Place Than Hell brings together the prodigious forces of war with the intimacy of individual lives. Matteson interweaves the historic and the personal in a work as beautiful as it is powerful.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Italics unfurls stories with confidence and novel-like flair, revealing a nuanced and rewarding narrative. The book provides a moving portrait of lives deeply intertwined with history, vividly depicted through Matteson's detailed research. Itβs a captivating exploration of the Civil War's impact, highlighting how personal and national transformations occurred during this turbulent period.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780393247077
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 09 March 2021
Country: United States
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Illustration: 16 pages of illustrations, 2 maps
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 36.0mm
Width: 165.0mm
Height: 244.0mm
Weight: 895g
Pages: 528
About the Author
John MattesonΒ was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Edenβs Outcasts and the Ann M. Sperber Prize for The Lives of Margaret Fuller. A Distinguished Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he lives in the Bronx.
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A Worse Place Than Hell
December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln's government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound repercussions in the country's law, literature, politics, and popular mythology....PaperbackSold Out
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