Description

Author: Jay Winik

“An extraordinary book … A marvelous account of campaigns and leadership, failures and human folly, stubbornness and the violation of the rules of war.”—Washington Times

It was a month that could have unraveled the nation. Instead, it saved it. In April 1865, Jay Winik masterfully breathes new life into the end of a war and the events we only thought we knew. This gripping, panoramic narrative takes readers on a breathless ride through these tumultuous thirty days, showing that the nation’s future rested on a few crucial decisions and twists of fate.

Here is Richmond’s dramatic fall, Lee’s harrowing retreat, and the intense debate in Confederate circles over unleashing guerilla warfare. Here, too, is the rebel surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln’s assassination five days later, and the ensuing fears of chaos and a coup, the shaky transfer of presidential power, and finally the start of national reconciliation. Outsized characters stalk through sweeping events in Winik’s brilliant narrative, transforming a seeming epilogue to a great war into a central—and saving—moment in American history, firmly placing April 1865 in the same pantheon as 1492 and 1776.

512 pages (Soft Cover)