This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War.

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War. By James M. McPherson. (New York and other cities: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 260. $28.00, ISBN 978-0-19-531366-6.)

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War assembles essays by James M. McPherson on a variety of Civil War topics, which collectively illustrate his customary mastery of the field. Seven of the sixteen originally appeared in the New York Review of Books as twelve separate review essays, six are reprinted from other books or journals, and three previously unpublished lectures complete the book. As a result, some unevenness in the collection reflects the differences between a piece originally produced for the American Historical Review and a review of a peripheral Civil War book. Surprising, however, is the consistency of tone and approachability throughout. In this book, as in so many others, McPherson manages to write for both an informed general audience and specialists. He reaches the public without sacrificing his high professional standards.

In the first chapter, "And the War Came," McPherson reiterates his argument that slavery caused the conflict, and in the last, "'As Commander-in-Chief I Have a Right to Take Any Measure Which May Best Subdue the Enemy,'" he emphasizes Abraham Lincoln's role in destroying slavery. In another, McPherson assesses the revived interest in material gathered by William H. Herndon, once dismissed as discredited and now viewed as essential to understanding Lincoln. McPherson also reviews the effort of the late Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher to grade the reliability of quotations attributed to Lincoln in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Stanford, 1996). From the title through the contents Lincoln becomes a major theme of these essays.

Searchers for variety may prefer other pieces. In one, McPherson discusses Harriet Tubman, who emerged from relative obscurity in the 1960s to achieve greater name recognition, according to one survey of first-year college students, than either Benjamin Franklin or Nathaniel Hawthorne; McPherson focuses a dubious eye on glowing reports of Tubman's achievements. In the same essay he takes a skeptical view of efforts to rehabilitate John Brown as a "terrorist for freedom," noting that the murderer of a doctor who performed abortions and the bomber of an abortion clinic both claimed to follow Brown's example (p. 39). In both cases McPherson leaves final judgment to the reader.

A pair of essays examines the causes of Confederate defeat. In the first, the internal causes of weakness are deftly contrasted with Gary W. Gallagher's emphasis on rebel determination; and in the second, McPherson analyzes the contrasting strategies of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, one emphasizing the quest for a resounding victory in the field, the other emphasizing the potential achievement of independence largely through persistence in maintaining the new nation. McPherson concludes that the apparent divergence may be exaggerated. In both essays he reaffirms his admiration for Lee's military achievements while sharing little sympathy for those questioning Confederates as lacking fighting spirit. Analyzing Lee's decision to invade Pennsylvania, McPherson balances the limited objectives cited in Lee's reports with the dreams of a knockout blow reflected in conversations with his subordinates. The former can be characterized as bright faces placed on unmitigated disaster; ambitions for a decisive victory that would lead to Confederate independence shaped Lee's Gettysburg strategy.

Several essays discuss Ulysses S. Grant, one in partnership with William T. Sherman, who also appears in a discussion of whether the Civil War was a "total war," and again in the context of the Vicksburg campaign (p. 124). Those sated with Lincoln, Grant, and Lee will find refreshment in essays on Jesse James and on the efforts of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to eliminate "Yankee lies" from textbooks used in southern schools (p. 97). Weightier topics that furnish more nourishment include the role of newspapers in the Civil War and the northern objective of refusing to accept peace without victory. McPherson once again has produced essays that are informative, lively, and judicious.

JOHN Y. SIMON (deceased)

Southern Illinois University Carbondale