{"product_id":"9781608193745","title":"America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation","description":"\u003cp\u003e In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first \u003cbr\u003emajor new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBattle Cry of Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e. Where past scholars have limned the war \u003cbr\u003eas a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest \u003cbr\u003efailure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical\u003cbr\u003e religion into the public sphere. As the Second GreatAwakening surged \u003cbr\u003ethrough America, political questions became matters of good and evil to \u003cbr\u003ebe fought to the death. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The price of that failure was horrific, \u003cbr\u003ebut the carnage accomplished what statesmen could not: It made the \u003cbr\u003eUnited States one nation and eliminated slavery as a divisive force in \u003cbr\u003ethe Union. The victorious North became synonymous with America as a land\u003cbr\u003e of innovation and industrialization, whose teeming cities offered \u003cbr\u003esqualor and opportunity in equal measure. Religion was supplanted by \u003cbr\u003escience and a gospel of progress, and the South was left behind. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Goldfield's panoramic narrative, sweeping from the 1840s to the end of \u003cbr\u003eReconstruction, is studded with memorable details and luminaries such as\u003cbr\u003e HarrietBeecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman. There are \u003cbr\u003elesser known yet equally compelling characters, too, including Carl \u003cbr\u003eSchurz-a German immigrant, warhero, and postwar reformer-and Alexander \u003cbr\u003eStephens, the urbane and intellectual vice president of the Confederacy.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAmerica Aflame\u003c\/i\u003e is a vivid portrait of the \"fiery trial\"that transformed the country we live in. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47163565605104,"sku":"9781608193745","price":11.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781608193745_p0.jpg?v=1763835047","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781608193745","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}