The Crisis Paperback – March 19, 2010

by Winston Churchill (Author)

4.0 26 ratings

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nabu Press (March 19, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 536 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1147602328
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1147602326
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.09 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.44 x 1.08 x 9.69 inches

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4.0 26 ratings

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peter pactor

It was the best seller in 1900

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016

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Extraordinary historical fiction. It was the best seller in 1900.

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2015

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Very pleased! Excellent service

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Carla

Horrible scanned version

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2020

This appeared to be a poorly scanned digital copy -several pages were missing.

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J. G. F.

American History scholars should have this book

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2002

Hundred year-old books often make for difficult reading, and this is no exception, but the story at the heart of it is one that you probably haven't heard before - especially if you went to elementary school in the North. On the surface it's a sentimental Civil War romance novel: Northern boy with an abolitionist mentor meets Southern girl from old, aristocratic, slaveholding Virginia family in antebellum St. Louis Missouri. Get beyond it.
Get deeper into it though and we meet Ulysses Grant, not as a General but as a failed businessman. We meet Sherman before he got his stripes. We meet Abraham Lincoln during the period of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the author takes the time and respects his readers' intelligence enough to get into the philosophical and rhetorical merits of Lincoln's debating techniques and the Republican Party's platform. The title of the books is drawn from a question put by Lincoln to Douglas at their Fairfield, Illinois debate. In developing his thesis on the Civil War, the author goes into great detail to explain how a desire for Liberty drove a wave of German immigrants to American shores in the mid-1800s where, as war approached, they displayed pro-Union sympathies. The author's thesis itself is that the American Civil War was not an indigenous event but was rather an chapter in an ongoing struggle between factions of the Anglo-Saxon race, a struggle between Cavaliers and Puritans going back to the days of King Charles I.
All-in-all, a book that opens the eyes to different ways of thinkin'. Readers looking for expressions of true equality of the freedmen or non Anglo-Saxon Europeans will not find these.

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Danny Russell

The Crisis

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2010

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The book arrived in good condition. To my surprise this was a 1901 copyright book.

One person found this helpful

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Curtiss Mooney

A Story of Abraham Lincoln

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2007

The American author, Winston Churchill, chose to set the action in his home town of St. Louis, because it was the site of pivotal events in the western theater of the Civil War, with historically prominent citizens having both Northern and Southern sympathies. St. Louis was also the pre-war home of both Ulysses Grant and William Sherman, who are depicted with drama and realism.

Romantic tension develops between the four main characters: one the fashionable daughter of a southern gentleman of the old school, another her n'er-do-well cousin who becomes a stalwart cavalier in the Southern cause to win her approval, the third an earnest young lawyer from Boston who antagonizes her by his zeal for Abraham Lincoln's cause, and the fourth a hard-working clerk with ambitions to advance himself both financially and socially.

"The crisis" is provoked by Abraham Lincoln's opposition to the extension of slavery, and the power of his personal integrity to win people to his cause, including the young lawyer, who becomes a devoted admirer and proponent following a personal interview on the eve of the Freeport debate between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. This meeting depicts Lincoln's determination to advance the cause of freedom through the possible (and likely) sacrifice of his own political ambitions, and is related with a very believable combination of rustic humor and political acumen on Lincoln's part.

The events prior to Lincoln's nomination and his eventual election to the Presidency elicit different reactions among the citizens of St. Louis, from the determined antipathy of the Southern sympathizers, to the equally determined patriotism of the population of German immigrants who have fled from their homeland and whose devotion to liberty has caused them to transfer their allegiance to the ideal of American democracy. One of them is a fellow lawyer who bears the scar of a duel fought with broadswords between himself and an arrogant German noble; a duel based on an actual incident in Berlin.

Although the personal rivalries follow an almost soap opera style formula, the overall events of the war from the perspective of St. Louis and the Western theater of war are dramatically depicted with well-researched authenticity, and both Grant and Sherman are depicted as having a personal involvement in the lives of the main characters. A pivotal moment in the heroine's life is presented through her transformation from being self-centered and self-absorbed to becoming self-sacrificing and dedicated to easing the suffering of others. This is represented as a Christian metaphor for the way that God uses challenges to mould a person's character.

Eventually she and the young lawyer find themselves meeting Lincoln together to try to save her cousin's life, and together they experience Lincoln's power to bring about a reconciliation between them; just before the national reconciliation which Lincoln proposed between the North and the South would be aborted by John Wilkes Booth's bullet.

This novel is a story about Abraham Lincoln in the same sense that the novel Ben Hur is "a tale of the Christ," in that Lincoln only appears twice, for a total of about two dozen pages, but his philosophy is a dynamic presence throughout the story. As a side note: General Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur partly as a way to revive his reputation in the aftermath of the battle of Shiloh, in which his division played an undistinguished role, marching and countermarching futilely the first day of the battle, the aftermath of which left Sherman so discouraged that he remarked to Grant, "They sure whupped us today!" To which Grant replied, "Yep. We'll whup them tomorrow," and they did.

In his post-script, the author offers this apology for supporting Lincoln's point of view, by explaining, "Lincoln loved both the South and the North."

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