Current, Richard Nelson

Knut Hamsun remembers America : essays and stories, 1885-1949 by Knut Hamsun( )

12 editions published in 2003 in English and held by 1,758 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Annotation

The Lincoln nobody knows by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

42 editions published between 1958 and 1999 in English and held by 1,707 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"A Lincoln authority probes the mysteries in Lincoln's life and personality by restating the most dramatic and bitterly fought controversies scholars have had about his life and by weighing the evidence, notably about his married life, his religious views, his role in provoking (or not provoking) the Civil War, his ability as a military strategist." Pub W

Daniel Webster and the rise of national conservatism by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

19 editions published between 1954 and 1992 in English and held by 1,668 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Biography, with emphasis on the development of Webster's political ideas during the years 1820-1850

Lincoln and the first shot by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

19 editions published between 1963 and 1990 in English and held by 1,616 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Lincoln's dilemma over Fort Sumter, should he let it fall or send help?

Those terrible carpetbaggers by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

12 editions published between 1988 and 1989 in English and held by 1,408 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Woodrow Wilson described them as men bent on "an expedition of profit," who used "the negroes as tools for their own selfish ends." Horace Greeley, while running for President, said they were "fellows who crawled down south in the track of our armies, generally at a very safe distance in the rear." And in the South they were hotly condemned as "the larvae of the North," "vulturous adventurers," and "vile, oily, odious." But how accurately does this describe the men from the North who came to be called "carpetbaggers"? Were they uneducated, penniless exploiters of the freed slave, jackals who plundered a devastated South? In this eye-opening account, the eminent Civil War historian Richard Nelson Current weaves together the biographies of ten of these men--all of whom are representative, if not the epitome, of the men called "carpetbaggers." The result is a provocative revisionist history of Reconstruction and what has long been considered its "most disgraceful" episode. Set within the larger context of Congressional politics and the history of individual Southern states, Current's narrative reveals a group of men who were often highly educated, almost all of whom had served with distinction in the Union Army (three were generals), and several of whom brought their own money down South to help rebuild a war-torn land. Daniel H. Chamberlain, for instance, was educated at Yale and Harvard Law School--he was described by the President of Yale as "a born leader of men"--Was governor of South Carolina, and later made a fortune as a Wall Street lawyer. Adelbert Ames, far from exploiting the black, was a leading exponent of black rights, the author of the main brief of the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, a major court battle against segregation. And Albion W. Tourgee, author of the best-selling A Fool's Errand, was praised after his death by W.E.B. du Bois for his efforts on behalf of the freed slaves. Current's vivid narrative captures the passions of this tumultuous period as he documents the careers and private lives of these ten prominent men. But more important, he provides a major reinterpretation of the entire period, revealing Reconstruction as it was seen by ten of its leading exponents in the South.-- Publisher

Secretary Stimson : a study in statecraft by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

26 editions published between 1954 and 2013 in English and held by 1,277 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

American history: a survey by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

65 editions published between 1959 and 1987 in 3 languages and held by 1,216 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Encyclopedia of the Confederacy( Book )

7 editions published in 1993 in English and held by 1,188 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

V. 1, Adam-Curr -- V. 2, Dahl-Loma -- V. 3, Long-Shil -- V. 4, Shin-Zall

Why the North won the Civil War : essays by David Herbert Donald( Book )

22 editions published between 1960 and 2012 in English and held by 1,162 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In this classic exploration of the Confederacy's defeat in the Civil War, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner David Herbert Donald and author of Lincoln assembles insightful and probing essays from six of America's most distinguished historians. Focusing on the political, military, economic, social, and diplomatic reasons behind the Union victory, this collection presents the most complete picture of this key aspect of Civil War studies. In an essay new to this edition, Henry Steele Commager offers a historiographical overview of the collapse of the Confederacy. Richard N. Current describes the economic superiority of the North and shows how the civilian resources of the South were dissipated during the war. T. Harry Williams examines the deficiencies of the Southern military strategy and leadership. Norman A. Graebner discusses the reluctance of France and England to aid the South. David Herbert Donald, in his own essay, reports that excessive Southern emphasis on individual freedom fatally undermined military discipline. And David M. Potter suggests that a lack of political leadership in the South resulted in gross incompetence. And exclusively for this edition, the editor has written a new foreword and completely updated the bibliography to create the most comprehensive and enlightening guide to understanding why the North won the Civil War. - Publisher

Lincoln's loyalists : Union soldiers from the Confederacy by Richard Nelson Current( Book )

11 editions published between 1992 and 1994 in English and held by 1,157 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

With this path-breaking book, Richard Nelson Current closes a major gap in our understanding of the important role of white southerners who fought for the Union during the Civil War. The ranks of the Union forces swelled by more than 100,000 of these men known to their friends as "loyalists" and to their enemies as "tories." They substantially strengthened the Union, weakened the Confederacy, and affected the outcome of the Civil War. Despite the assertions of southern governors that Lincoln would get no troops from the South to preserve the Union, every Confederate state except South Carolina provided at least a battalion of white troops for the Union Army. The role of black soldiers (including those from the South) continues to receive deserved attention. Curiously, little heed has been paid to the white southern supporters of the Union cause, and nothing has been published about the group as a whole. Relying almost entirely on primary sources, Current here opens the long-overdue investigation of these many Americans who, at great risk to themselves and their families, made a significant contribution to the Union's war effort. Current meticulously explores the history of the loyalists in each Confederate state during the war. Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia provided over 70 percent of the loyalist troops, but 10,000 from Arkansas, 7,000 from Louisiana, and thousands from North Carolina, Texas, and Alabama volunteered as well. The author weaves the separate state stories into an intriguing and detailed tapestry. The loyalists served in a variety of capacities--some performing mundane tasks, some fighting with valor. Whatever his individual role, each southerner joining the Union constituted a double loss to the Confederacy: a subtraction from its own ranks and an addition to the Union's. Undoubtedly, this played an important role in the Confederate defeat