The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties
"An impressive work, finely written and carefully presented.  An important contribution that will serve the undergraduate as well as [the] scholar."--Professor Dennis M. Shannon, Alabama University - Montgomery"Excellent book--very informative, and appropriate for today's times as well as for the last century.  I think it 'must' reading for students taking a course on the Civil War, and it would be apprpriate reading for several other courses."--Robert Langran, Villanova University"In this Pulitzer Prize-winning study, Mark Neely makes a major contribution to th[e] revision of the analysis of the nature of war behind the lines....A refreshing historical revision of the inner workings of the Union effort, which all too often is presented as if it had been a well-oiled machine....It is to be hoped that this book will stimulate others to look at the impact of the war on civilians in more detailled ways."-Michael Fellman, Canadian Review of American Studies"At last, some 125 years after the end of the Civil War, we have a more accurate and honest understanding of the Lincoln administration and civil liberties.  After years of painstaking archival research Mark Neely presents a compelling argument that history should be left to those who do research and not to novelists, literary critics, or thos with political axes to grind, like the 'lost cause' partisan who wrote American Bastile.  Neely's book, which is the best scholarly examination of this issue  ever written, will rehabilitate Lincoln's reputation on civil liberties....Extremely convincing."--Paul Finkleman, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography"By far the best book on the subject.....Masterful."--Gabor S. Boritt, Illinois Issues"Intriguing....Neely has refined the debate with exhaustive and impressive research.  He has supplied detail and restored context to discussions of civil liberties during the Civil War.  His questions are good ones.  His answers are striking....The first book-length study of civil liberties during the Lincoln administrations.  It will set a standard."--Francis N. Stites, Civil War History"A thorough and meticulously documented study....Highlighted by more than thirty pages of well-researched endnotes, a comprehensive index, and an index of 'prisoners of state.'  Highly recommended."--Choice"An in-depth summary of how Lincoln and his administration handled civil rights in the deepest crisis the nation has ever endured....A chilling reminder that personal liberty always hangs in tremulous balance when the nation is tangled in desperate crisis."--The Grand Rapids Press"An important book....[Neely's] research is broad and deep, not only in range of the usual primary materials but in a massive amount of sources in the National Archives on specific cases, hitherto unused."--Indiana Magazine of History"[An] excellent study of civil liberties in the North during the Civil War....Neely writes in clear, straightforward prose....An impressive and valuable addition to the literature of the Civil War."--The Journal of American History--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.