{"product_id":"reveille-in-washington-isbn-9781590174463","title":"Reveille in Washington","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Pulitzer Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFeaturing a foreword by \u003ci\u003eBattle Cry of Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e author James McPherson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA vibrant portrait of Civil War-era Washington, D.C. that is “packed and running over with the anecdotes, scandals, personalities, and tragi-comedies of the day”—from the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for History (\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1860: The American capital is sprawling, fractured, squalid, colored by patriotism and treason, and deeply divided along the political lines that will soon embroil the nation in bloody conflict. Chaotic and corrupt, the young city is populated by bellicose congressmen, Confederate conspirators, and enterprising prostitutes. Soldiers of a volunteer army swing from the dome of the Capitol, assassins stalk the avenues, and Abraham Lincoln struggles to justify his presidency as the Union heads to war. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReveille in Washington\u003c\/i\u003e focuses on the everyday politics and preoccupations of Washington during the Civil War. From the stench of corpse-littered streets to the plunging lace on Mary Lincoln’s evening gowns, Margaret Leech illuminates the city and its familiar figures—among them Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, William Seward, and Mary Surratt—in intimate and fascinating detail. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeech’s book remains widely recognized as both an impressive feat of scholarship and an uncommonly engrossing work of history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The best single popular account of Washington during the great convulsion of the Civil War.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“This teeming Washington, described in all its wonderful, eccentric detail, provides the perspective from which Leech examines the overall pursuit of the war, among whose elements were the ineptness, intransigence, and obstructive jealousies of many of the Union generall . . . This is a character-driven history and a chronicle of a city, but it is, also, a deft review of military strategy and of political maneuvering between and within political parties.  It is, too, a fast-paced account of the developing exigencies that resulted in, among other things, the suspension of habeas corpus, the levying of income tax, conscription, and, most momentously, in the emancipation of slaves, first in Washington and then universally.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Katherine Powers, \u003ci\u003eB\u0026amp;N Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In 1860, Washington was a raw country town, a symbol trying to be a city. By 1865 it had become the nation’s capital. \u003ci\u003eReveille in Washington\u003c\/i\u003e is packed and running over with the anecdotes, scandals, personalities, and tragi-comedies of the day. Here you will meet young Andy Carnegie organizing military transport; a Patent Office clerk named Clara Barton suddenly discovering she has a real vocation; Matthew Brady, obsessed with the idea that he could make a photographic record of a war; Louisa M. Alcott and Walt Whitman finding their great moments in hospitals. It’s a wonderful story.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Clifton Fadiman, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Published in 1941, this remains the best single popular account of Washington during the great convulsion of the Civil War. Vividly written, with hundreds of cameo portraits, from president Lincoln to the humblest citizen.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Leech, who published three novels before this work of history appeared in 1941, offers a smart and witty account of wartime Washington’s transformation from an administrative backwater to the locus of renewed federal power. This encyclopedic portrait won Leech, who died in 1974, her first of two Pulitzer Prizes for history...\u003ci\u003eReveille in Washington\u003c\/i\u003e could stand on its own as a first-rate chronicle of how the political elites handled the war. Many of Leech’s characters are familiar names from American history, and they are brought to life in a new way with the spark of her pen...But the book’s main character is really the city itself...Several writers—Walt Whitman in \u003ci\u003eSpecimen Days\u003c\/i\u003e, Louisa May Alcott in \u003ci\u003eHospital Sketches\u003c\/i\u003e—wrote more intimately and movingly about life in the capital during the Civil War, but neither did so with the scope or the ambition of Leech. The steady clip of Leech’s accomplished book is in a way perfectly suited to Washington.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Winner of the 1942 Pulitzer Prize, this history of the nation’s capital during the Civil War is a rich, beautifully written narrative.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—“Ten Neglected Classics,” \u003ci\u003eThe American Scholar\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMargaret Leech (1893–1974)\u003c\/b\u003e was an American novelist, biographer, and historian. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for History and one of only two people to win it twice, first in 1942 for \u003ci\u003eReveille in Washington\u003c\/i\u003e and again in 1960 for \u003ci\u003eIn the Days of McKinley\u003c\/i\u003e (for which she also won the Bancroft Prize). Leech was born in Newburgh, New York, and graduated from Vassar College in 1915. She then moved to New York City, where she found work in the advertising and publicity departments of Condé Nast. Following World War I, she served on the American Committee for Devastated France and took up journalism and fiction, eventually publishing three novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Back of the Book \u003c\/i\u003e(1924), \u003ci\u003eTin Wedding\u003c\/i\u003e (1926), and \u003ci\u003eThe Feathered Nest\u003c\/i\u003e (1928), before turning to history. A member of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table, where she was known for her sharp tongue, she collaborated with Heywood Broun on a biography of Anthony Comstock (1927) and with Beatrice Kaufman on a play, \u003ci\u003eDivided by Three\u003c\/i\u003e (1934). In 1928 Leech married Ralph Pulitzer, editor and publisher of \u003ci\u003eThe New York World.\u003c\/i\u003e At the time of her death Leech had begun work on a new history, \u003ci\u003eThe Garfield Orbit\u003c\/i\u003e. Completed by Harry J. Brown, the book appeared in 1978.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames M. Mcpherson\u003c\/b\u003e was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for \u003ci\u003eBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era\u003c\/i\u003e. Among his other books are \u003ci\u003eFor Cause and Comrades\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDrawn with the Sword\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhat They Fought For\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGettysburg\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eFields of Fury\u003c\/i\u003e. A professor at Princeton University, he lives in Princeton,\u003cbr\u003eNew Jersey.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302518182117,"sku":"NP9781590174463","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590174463.jpg?v=1767735703","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/reveille-in-washington-isbn-9781590174463","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}