"Battle Cry of Freedom"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses McPherson's thesis in his book "Battle Cry of Freedom" that slavery and the politics of slavery gave rise to the Civil War. The paper outlines the main content and ideas of McPherson and concludes that the book is important to read, as it sheds light on the dialogue that still occurs within the public discourse about race and why race remains so symbolically central in American public life.

From the Paper:

"When it was first published in 1988, Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson touched off a resurgence of interest in the Civil War that eventually cumulated in the famous Ken Burns PBS documentary about the American Civil War (Lifton 2008). James M. McPherson himself, however, did not gravitate towards his later interest in the war when he was young. He was born in North Dakota, far from the crucial states at the center of the Civil War and raised in Minnesota. It was not until he was a graduate student in Maryland; right on the cusp of the North-South border, that McPherson's fascination with the Civil War came into full bloom. It was 1958 at Johns Hopkins University and McPherson came to believe that the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s could be traced back to the Civil War era, thus creating the impetus to write this magnum opus of the War Between the States (Liftson 2008)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Liftson, Amy. "Meet James McPherson." National Endowment for the HumanitiesNEH.gov. 30 Apr 2008.http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/mcpherson/meet.html
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

More papers on "Battle Cry of Freedom":

• Analytical Essay # 46444 : "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era"
• Analytical Essay # 28658 : "Battle Cry For Freedom: The Civil War Era"
• Analytical Essay # 53794 : "James McPherson's Book on the Civil War"

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