1861: The Lost Peace [Hardcover]

From an award-winning historian andNew York Timesbestselling author, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's decision to go to war against the Confederacy.

1861: The Lost Peaceis the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.   

Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden “a great man” even as Lincoln jousted with him. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet—the finest in history—which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death. A perfect read for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate.Jay Winikis an American historian andNew York Timesbestselling author, known for his award-winningApril 1865: The Month That Saved America and celebrated for his innovative tellings of history. Winik is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sat on the board of trustees of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He graduated from Yale College with honors, and holds a Masters from the London School of Economics with distinction, as well as a Ph.D. from Yale University.“A portrait of two sides talking past each other, rather than with each other... [Jay Winik] traces the efforts of those who genuinely wanted to prevent war and the trauma of secession—and shows how Abraham Lincoln tried at first to listen and then alã.