House of Abraham
Subtitle: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: November 5, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780618420056
Subjects: U.S. History - Civil War And Reconstruction (1860-1877); History; History - Military / War; History: American; Historical - U.S.; Presidents & Heads of State; United States - Civil War; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); 1809-1865; 1818-1882; Biography; Civil War, 1861-1865; Family; Lincoln, Abraham,; Lincoln, Mary Todd,; United States
Description: For all the talk of the Civil War "pitting brother against brother," there has never before been a single book that traces the story of one family ravaged by that conflict. And no family could better illustrate the personal toll the war took than Lincoln's own. Mary Todd Lincoln was one of fourteen siblings who were split between the Confederacy and the Union. Three of her brothers fought, and two died, for the South. Several Todds--including Mary herself--bedeviled Lincoln's administration with their scandalous behavior. Historian Berry tells their saga with the emotional intensity of a novelist. The Todds' struggles haunted the president and moved him to avoid tactics or rhetoric that would dehumanize or scapegoat the Confederates. Drawing on his own familial experience, Lincoln was inspired to articulate a humanistic, even charitable view of the enemy that seems surpassingly wise in our time, let alone his.--From publisher description.
Table of contents: title: The Todd family; title: Introduction; title: Bluegrass beginnings; title: Scattered; title: 1861 : divided we fall; title: 1862 : "blood galore"; title: 1863 : The death of Absalom; title: 1864-1865 : A whole people; title: Epilogue