"From an award-winning historian and New York Times bestselling author, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's decision to go to war against the Confederacy.
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln's difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.
Through Jay Winik's singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden "a great man" even as Lincoln jousted with him. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln's cabinet-the finest in history-which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death. A perfect read for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate."
"It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation.
Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment to change the course of civilization. A sweeping, magisterial drama featuring the richest cast of characters ever to walk upon the world stage, including Washington, Jefferson, Louis XVI, Robespierre, and Catherine the Great, The Great Upheaval is a gripping, epic portrait of this tumultuous decade that will forever transform the way we see America's beginnings and our world"
"The year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put intense pressure on the ailing yet determined President Roosevelt, is brought to vivid life in "gripping" (The New York Times Book Review) detail in this New York Times bestseller.
1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies—but with a fateful cost. Now, in a "complex history rendered with great color and sympathy" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Jay Winik captures the epic images and extraordinary history "with cinematic force" (Time).
1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But millions of lives were at stake as President Roosevelt learned about Hitler's Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews. Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an infirm Roosevelt, who faced a momentous decision. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world's reach, one challenge—saving Europe's Jews—seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt's grasp.
"This dramatic account highlights what too often has been glossed over—that as nobly as the Greatest Generation fought under FDR's command, America could well have done more to thwart Nazi aggression" (The Boston Globe). Destined to take its place as one of the great works of World War II, 1944 is the first book to retell these events with moral clarity and a moving appreciation of the extraordinary actions of many extraordinary leaders."
"While most courses focus on the entire sweep of the conflict, this course presents an in-depth examination of the waning days of the great struggle. We'll examine the dramatic events leading up to April 1865 and ponder some of the unthinkable alternatives that, had they materialized, would have surely prevented the formation of the country we know today."
"It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into monumental revolution. But none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation. In The Great Upheaval, acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment to change the course of civilization.
Winik brings his vast, meticulous research and narrative genius to the cold, dark battlefields and deadly clashes of ideologies that defined this age. Here is a savage world war, the toppling of a great dynasty, and an America struggling to survive at home and abroad. Here, too, is the first modern Holy War between Islam and a resurgent Christian empire. And here is the richest cast of characters ever to walk upon the world stage: Washington and Jefferson, Louis XVI and Robespierre, Catherine the Great, Adams, Napoleon, and Selim III. Exquisitely written and utterly compelling, The Great Upheaval vividly depicts an arc of revolutionary fervor stretching from Philadelphia and Paris to St. Petersburg and Cairo—with fateful results. A landmark in historical literature, Winik's gripping, epic portrait of this tumultuous decade will forever transform the way we see America's beginnings and our world."
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