By Richard Slotkin
In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted fighting,
Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy—one that abandoned hope
for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece
of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of
federal power that would revolutionize Southern society. In The Long Road to
Antietam, Richard Slotkin, a renowned cultural historian, reexamines the
challenges that Lincoln encountered during that anguished summer 150 years ago.
In an original and incisive study of character, Slotkin re-creates the showdown
between Lincoln and General George McClellan, the “Young Napoleon” whose
opposition to Lincoln included obsessive fantasies of dictatorship and a
military coup. He brings to three-dimensional life their ruinous conflict, demonstrating
how their political struggle provided Confederate General Robert E. Lee with
his best opportunity to win the war, in the grand offensive that ended in
September of 1862 at the bloody Battle of Antietam.
About the Author
The author of the award-winning American history trilogy
Regeneration Through Violence, The Fatal Environment, and Gunfighter Nation,
Richard Slotkin, an emeritus professor at Wesleyan University, won the Shaara
Award for Civil War fiction for Abe. He lives in Middletown, Connecticut.
ISBN 978-0871404114, Liveright, © 2012, Hardcover, 512
pages, Photographs, 8 Maps, 10 Illustrations, Chronology, Antietam Order of
Battle, Endnotes, Selected Bibliography & Index. $32.95
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