American Civl Wars by Alan Taylor
Today’s most interesting historians examine their subjects through a wide lens. Recent books include a history of Germany in a global context and the Reconstruction read as a liberalizing movement that climaxed with women’s suffrage. With American Civil Wars, note the plural, Alan Taylor narrates a continental story that includes Canada, Mexico and Native Americans as well the United States from 1850-1873.
The Pulitzer-winning author builds his account around the commonalities of three national leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Mexico’s Benito Juarez and Canada’s John Macdonald. All were men of humble birth who rose, after practicing law, to lead their countries through defining years. All three “shared a commitment to liberalism, the dominant and progressive ideology” of their era. Lincoln fought the Southern secessionists, Juarez stood against French invaders and Macdonald, without firing a shot, secured the independence of his country from a U.S. determined to gobble up all of North America.
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