Brooks D. Simpson

A compelling biography of the Union general challenges stereotypes of Grant as a drunk and a bumbler, focusing on his brilliant military career and his political evolution into a man who came to see the war as the necessary destroyer of slavery. Tour.

In this lively work of revisionism, Brooks D. Simpson offers a new understanding of Henry Adams's political career, looking beyond the oft-quoted Education of Henry Adams to discover the historian, journalist, and political gadfly as he truly was. In doing so, Simpson challenges portrayals presented by Adams's many biographers and reassesses positions of major historians. He demonstrat

Historians have traditionally drawn distinctions between Ulysses S. Grant's military and political careers. In Let Us Have Peace , Brooks Simpson questions such distinctions and offers a new understanding of this often enigmatic leader. He argues that during the 1860s Grant was both soldier and politician, for military and civil policy were inevitably intertwined during the Civil War and Reconstru

During and after the Civil War, four presidents faced the challenge of reuniting the nation and of providing justice for black Americans—and of achieving a balance between those goals. This first book to collectively examine the Reconstruction policies of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes reveals how they confronted and responded to the complex issues prese

Such is the continuing volume of work on the Civil War that we are regularly in need of an authoritative and accessible brief synthesis to keep us up to date with this endlessly fascinating subject. Brooks Simpson meets that need for the 1990s in America's Civil War, a wonderful feat of compression in which he addresses all the great issues of the war in 200 pages of clear and readable prose. Righ

This book fills a gap in Civil War literature on the strategies employed by the Union and Confederacy in the East, offering a more integrated interpretation of military operations that shows how politics, public perception, geography, and logistics shaped the course of military operations in the East.For all the literature about Civil War military operations and leadership, precious li

Gettysburg, 1863 offers readers an account of the great battle, as well as a succinct discussion of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s offensive in June 1863 and the battle’s aftermath as the Confederates made their way across the Potomac River some ten days later. Brooks D. Simpson outlines the decisions that the commanders on the field made and details how the action unfolded. He explores many aspects

It was the beginning of the end, but no one then knew it.In the summer of 1864, the outcome of the Civil War was far from decided. Many Americans still look to 1863 as the high tide of Confederate fortunes, especially the dramatic battle of Gettysburg, yet Confederate prospects remained bright the following year. By June 1864, both Ulysses S. Grant and his favorite subordinate,