$35.00
By Elizabeth Varon
Featured title in our 2024 Book Talk Series!
An authoritative biography of the controversial Confederate general, who later embraced Reconstruction and became an outcast in the South.
It was the most remarkable political about-face in American history. During the Civil War, General James Longstreet fought tenaciously for the Confederacy. He was alongside Lee at Gettysburg (and counseled him not to order the ill-fated attacks on entrenched Union forces there). He won a major Confederate victory at Chickamauga and was seriously wounded during a later battle.
After the war Longstreet moved to New Orleans, where he dramatically changed course. He supported Black voting and joined the newly elected, integrated postwar government in Louisiana. When white supremacists took up arms to oust that government, Longstreet, leading the interracial state militia, did battle against former Confederates. His defiance ignited a firestorm of controversy, as white Southerners branded him a race traitor and blamed him retroactively for the South’s defeat in the Civil War.
Although he was one of the highest-ranking Confederate generals, Longstreet has never been commemorated with statues or other memorials in the South because of his postwar actions in rejecting the Lost Cause mythology and urging racial reconciliation. He is being rediscovered in the new age of racial reckoning. This is the first biography in decades and the first to give proper attention to Longstreet’s long post-Civil War career.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 21, 2023)
Length: 480 pages
ISBN13: 9781982148270
In stock
Description
Although he was one of the highest-ranking Confederate generals, Longstreet has never been commemorated with statues or other memorials in the South because of his postwar actions in rejecting the Lost Cause mythology and urging racial reconciliation. He is being rediscovered in the new age of racial reckoning. This is the first biography in decades and the first to give proper attention to Longstreet’s long post-Civil War career.
Quotes
“The great historian Elizabeth Varon has given us a compelling portrait…A Confederate general who became an advocate for justice in the painful aftermath of the Civil War, Longstreet has much to teach us in our own hour of polarization.”
— Jon Meacham, New York Times bestselling author
- “James Longstreet…has long puzzled contemporaries and historians. Elizabeth Varon brilliantly solves this puzzle and links it to the persistent efforts to scapegoat Longstreet for Confederate defeat at Gettysburg.”— James M. McPherson, New York Times bestselling author
- “Combining rigorous research with engaging prose, Varon pairs the full life of this fascinating and controversial figure with brilliant insights into a complicated period of US history.”— Joan Waugh, professor emerita, Department of History, University of California Los Angeles
Additional information
| Weight | 2 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 10 × 8 × 2 in |
