The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters

The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters is the most recent book from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson. As a leading expert on the American Civil War, McPherson organizes his collection of essays to offer an insightful perspective on the Civil War’s ongoing relevance in contemporary politics and the national psyche. Grounded in 50 years of research and published in 2015 by Oxford University Press, The War That Forged a Nation examines several dimensions of the war, including the causes of the conflict, the influence on the national identity, the moral and religious considerations, the scale of destruction, the leadership and military operations, and the international impact. A key consideration of the text is the profound influence that the American Revolution had on President Abraham Lincoln’s moral and political convictions and his need to address the nation’s issues, which in some ways remain unresolved today. The salient problems include questions of state sovereignty, racial inequality, the role of the federal government in social change, and the country’s pursuit of its founding ideals and their meaning. Moreover, McPherson articulates the Civil War’s role in transforming the national character of the United States, and discusses the significance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution, which combined to form the basis for furthering civil equality for the United States’ citizens even as they expanded the power of the federal government and created a centralized polity. 

This guide refers to the 2015 Oxford University Press edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide use a historical lens to address sensitive and complex issues such as enslavement, racism, war, and violence.

Summary

McPherson organizes the collection of essays to create thematic coherence across the chapters. Chapter 1, “Why the Civil War Still Matters,” connects the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement to contemporary politics by identifying the primary issues that have endured through each era, namely the balance of power between state and federal governments and the relationship between racial inequality and the nation’s founding ideals. McPherson also highlights the ways in which the Civil War transformed the nation’s character.

In Chapter 2, “Mexico, California, and the Coming of the Civil War,” McPherson articulates the relationship between westward expansion and sectional conflict over enslavement, pinpointing Texas annexation and the Mexican-American War as inciting events that deepened the sectional conflict and eventually erupted into the Civil War. The next two chapters turn to psychological aspects of the Civil War, emphasizing the roles of morality and religion in the conflict. Chapter 3 (“A Just War?”) examines and challenges Henry Stout’s moral history perspective, while Chapter 4, “Death and Destruction in the Civil War,” challenges Mark E. Neely’s remarkable restraint thesis. Together, the two chapters clarify McPherson’s moral determination and illuminate the lasting impact of increased religiosity prompted by the large-scale death and destruction of the Civil War.

The next two chapters emphasize the role played by naval forces. In Chapter 5, “American Navies and British Neutrality During the Civil War,” McPherson explains naval events that prevented foreign intervention, while Chapter 6, “The Rewards of Risk-Taking: Two Civil War Admirals,” examines the legacies of Samuel Francis Du Pont and David Glasgow Farragut to explore effects of individual character traits and leadership qualities upon Union victory. Chapters 7 and 8 provide a sociopolitical perspective on questions of race and enslavement. In Chapter 7 (“How Did Freedom Come?”), McPherson answers the titular question by examining enslaved people’s initiative to escape to Union lines, and he also analyzes Lincoln’s role in transforming the Union army to a liberation army and thereby setting the stage for emancipation. Chapter 8, “Lincoln, Slavery, and Freedom,” examines the evolution of Lincoln’s political and personal perspectives on enslavement and race as well as the pragmatism evident in his political decisions. 

In the next two chapters, McPherson examines events from a military perspective, with Chapter 9 (“A. Lincoln, Commander in Chief”) focusing on Lincoln’s leadership qualities and war strategies and contextualizing his frustration and disappointment with military commanders who did not live up to his expectations. Chapter 10, “The Commander Who Would Not Fight: McClellan and Lincoln,” provides further insight on Chapter 9 by emphasizing the contrast between McClellan and Lincoln’s approaches to war. The final two chapters highlight the legacy of the Civil War. Chapter 11, “Lincoln’s Legacy of Our Time,” discusses Lincoln’s deep sense of history, the national ideals he was determined to save, and the impact of Union victory on other nations. Chapter 12, “War and Peace in the Post-Civil War South,” deals with the Reconstruction era, noting Southern and Democratic resistance to the sweeping social and legal changes brought by Union victory. This chapter also examines the ways in which white Americans sacrificed justice for peace, thus prolonging the struggle for racial equity in the United States.