Elizabeth Brown Pryor's Books

Reading the Man

A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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Reading the Man

A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

“Pryor’s biography helps part with a lot of stupid out there about Lee – chiefly, that he was, somehow, ‘anti-slavery.’” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, theatlantic.com An “unorthodox, critical, and engaging biography” (Boston Globe) – Winner of The Lincoln Prize Robert E. Lee is remembered by history as a tragic figure, stoic and brave but distant and enigmatic. Using dozens of previously unpublished letters as departure points, Pryor produces a stunning personal account of Lee's military ability, shedding new light on every aspect of the complex and contradictory general's life story. Explained for the first time in the context of the young United States's tumultuous societal developments, Lee's actions reveal a man forced to play a leading role in the formation of the nation at the cost of his private happiness.

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Page Count

700

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101202467

ISBN 13

9781101202463

Six Encounters with Lincoln

A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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Six Encounters with Lincoln

A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Winner of the Barondess/Lincoln Award from The Civil War Round Table of New York “Fascinating reading. . .this book eerily reflects some of today’s key issues.” – The New York Times Book Review From an award-winning historian, an engrossing look at how Abraham Lincoln grappled with the challenges of leadership in an unruly democracy An awkward first meeting with U.S. Army officers, on the eve of the Civil War. A conversation on the White House portico with a young cavalry sergeant who was a fiercely dedicated abolitionist. A tense exchange on a navy ship with a Confederate editor and businessman. In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Brown Pryor examines six intriguing, mostly unknown encounters that Abraham Lincoln had with his constituents. Taken together, they reveal his character and opinions in unexpected ways, illustrating his difficulties in managing a republic and creating a presidency. Pryor probes both the political demons that Lincoln battled in his ambitious exercise of power and the demons that arose from the very nature of democracy itself: the clamorous diversity of the populace, with its outspoken demands. She explores the trouble Lincoln sometimes had in communicating and in juggling the multiple concerns that make up being a political leader; how conflicted he was over the problem of emancipation; and the misperceptions Lincoln and the South held about each other. Pryor also provides a fascinating discussion of Lincoln’s fondness for storytelling and how he used his skills as a raconteur to enhance both his personal and political power. Based on scrupulous research that draws on hundreds of eyewitness letters, diaries, and newspaper excerpts, Six Encounters with Lincoln offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln as the beleaguered politician who was not especially popular with the people he needed to govern with, and who had to deal with the many critics, naysayers, and dilemmas he faced without always knowing the right answer. What it shows most clearly is that greatness was not simply laid on Lincoln’s shoulders like a mantle, but was won in fits and starts.

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Page Count

498

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

014311123X

ISBN 13

9780143111238

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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Clara Barton, Professional Angel

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Widely known today as the "Angel of the Battlefield," Clara Barton's personal life has always been shrouded in mystery. In Clara Barton, Professional Angel, Elizabeth Brown Pryor presents a biography of Barton that strips away the heroic exterior and reveals a complex and often trying woman. Based on the papers Clara Barton carefully saved over her lifetime, this biography is the first one to draw on these recorded thoughts. Besides her own voluminous correspondence, it reflects the letters and reminiscences of lovers, a grandniece who probed her aunt's venerable facade, and doctors who treated her nervous disorders. She emerges as a vividly human figure. Continually struggling to cope with her insecure family background and a society that offered much less than she had to give, she chose achievement as the vehicle for gaining the love and recognition that frequently eluded her during her long life. Not always altruistic, her accomplishments were nonetheless extraordinary. On the battlefields of the Civil War, in securing American participation in the International Red Cross, in promoting peacetime disaster relief, and in fighting for women's rights, Clara Barton made an unparalleled contribution to American social progress. Yet the true measure of her life must be made from this perspective: she dared to offend a society whose acceptance she treasured, and she put all of her energy into patching up the lives of those around her when her own was rent and frayed.

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Page Count

475

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

081220090X

ISBN 13

9780812200904

Reading the Man

A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Lettters

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor,Robert Edward Lee

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Reading the Man

A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Lettters

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor,Robert Edward Lee

Offers insight into the lesser-known complexities of the general's personality, in a biography based on his unpublished personal correspondence and covering such topics as his early years, relationships with family and slaves, and thoughts on military str

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700

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0670038296

ISBN 13

9780670038299

Six Encounters with Lincoln

A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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Six Encounters with Lincoln

A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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498

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Penguin

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ISBN 10

014311123X

ISBN 13

9780143111238

Secession Winter

When the Union Fell Apart

By: Robert J Cook,William L Barney,Elizabeth R. Varon

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Secession Winter

When the Union Fell Apart

By: Robert J Cook,William L Barney,Elizabeth R. Varon

Three historians examine what drove southern secession in the winter of 1860-1861 and why it culminated in the American Civil War. Politicians and opinion leaders on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line struggled to formulate coherent responses to the secession of the deep South states. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861 triggered civil war and the loss of four upper South states from the Union. The essays by three senior historians in Secession Winter explore the robust debates that preceded these events. For five months in the winter of 1860–1861, Americans did not know for certain that civil war was upon them. Some hoped for a compromise; others wanted a fight. Many struggled to understand what was happening to their country. Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney, and Elizabeth R. Varon take approaches to this period that combine political, economic, and social-cultural lines of analysis. Rather than focus on whether civil war was inevitable, they look at the political process of secession and find multiple internal divisions—political parties, whites and nonwhites, elites and masses, men and women. Even individual northerners and southerners suffered inner conflicts. The authors include the voices of Unionists and Whig party moderates who had much to lose and upcountry folk who owned no slaves and did not particularly like those who did. Barney contends that white southerners were driven to secede by anxiety and guilt over slavery. Varon takes a new look at Robert E. Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy. Cook argues that both northern and southern politicians claimed the rightness of their cause by constructing selective narratives of historical grievances.

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Page Count

161

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

142140897X

ISBN 13

9781421408972

Galveston and the 1900 Storm

Catastrophe and Catalyst

By: Patricia Bellis Bixel,Elizabeth Hayes Turner

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Galveston and the 1900 Storm

Catastrophe and Catalyst

By: Patricia Bellis Bixel,Elizabeth Hayes Turner

Spur Award Nominee: How Galveston, Texas, reinvented itself after historic disaster: “A riveting narrative . . . Absorbing [and] well-illustrated.” —Library Journal The Galveston storm of 1900 reduced a cosmopolitan and economically vibrant city to a wreckage-strewn wasteland where survivors struggled without shelter, power, potable water, or even the means to summon help. At least 6,000 of the city's 38,000 residents died in the hurricane. Many observers predicted that Galveston would never recover and urged that the island be abandoned. Instead, the citizens of Galveston seized the opportunity, not just to rebuild, but to reinvent the city in a thoughtful, intentional way that reformed its government, gave women a larger role in its public life, and made it less vulnerable to future storms and flooding. This extensively illustrated history tells the full story of the 1900 Storm and its long-term effects. The authors draw on survivors’ accounts to vividly recreate the storm and its aftermath. They describe the work of local relief agencies, aided by Clara Barton and the American Red Cross, and show how their short-term efforts grew into lasting reforms. At the same time, the authors reveal that not all Galvestonians benefited from the city’s rebirth, as African Americans found themselves increasingly shut out from civic participation by Jim Crow segregation laws. As the centennial of the 1900 Storm prompts remembrance and reassessment, this complete account will be essential and fascinating reading for all who seek to understand Galveston’s destruction and rebirth. Runner-up, Spur Award for Best Western Nonfiction—Contemporary, Western Writers Of America

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Page Count

581

Publisher

Univ of TX + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292753950

ISBN 13

9780292753952

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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Clara Barton, Professional Angel

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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475

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

081220090X

ISBN 13

9780812200904

Appomattox

Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War

By: Elizabeth R. Varon

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Appomattox

Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War

By: Elizabeth R. Varon

Winner, Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction Winner, Eugene Feit Award in Civil War Studies, New York Military Affairs Symposium Winner of the Dan and Marilyn Laney Prize of the Austin Civil War Round Table Finalist, Jefferson Davis Award of the Museum of the Confederacy Best Books of 2014, Civil War Monitor 6 Civil War Books to Read Now, Diane Rehm Show, NPR Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House evokes a highly gratifying image in the popular mind -- it was, many believe, a moment that transcended politics, a moment of healing, a moment of patriotism untainted by ideology. But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in this vividly narrated history, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. The combatants in that debate included the iconic Lee and Grant, but they also included a cast of characters previously overlooked, who brought their own understanding of the war's causes, consequences, and meaning. In Appomattox, Varon deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered-but not well understood-moment when the Civil War ended. She expertly depicts the final battles in Virginia, when Grant's troops surrounded Lee's half-starved army, the meeting of the generals at the McLean House, and the shocked reaction as news of the surrender spread like an electric charge throughout the nation. But as Varon shows, the ink had hardly dried before both sides launched a bitter debate over the meaning of the war and the nation's future. For Grant, and for most in the North, the Union victory was one of right over wrong, a vindication of free society; for many African Americans, the surrender marked the dawn of freedom itself. Lee, in contrast, believed that the Union victory was one of might over right: the vast impersonal Northern war machine had worn down a valorous and unbowed South. Lee was committed to peace, but committed, too, to the restoration of the South's political power within the Union and the perpetuation of white supremacy. These two competing visions of the war's end paved the way not only for Southern resistance to reconstruction but also our ongoing debates on the Civil War, 150 years later. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by Northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country-and of the meaning of the war that had changed that country forever.

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199347913

ISBN 13

9780199347919

Texas Almanac

Sesquicentennial Edition

By: Elizabeth Cruce Alvarez

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Texas Almanac

Sesquicentennial Edition

By: Elizabeth Cruce Alvarez

The first edition of the Texas Almanac was published in January 1857, only 21 years after Texas won its independence from Mexico and 12 years after it became a state. Includes articles about the Lone Star State as well as history of the Spanish Mission system in Texas.

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Page Count

692

Publisher

Texas State Historical Assn

Published Date

ISBN 10

0914511386

ISBN 13

9780914511380

Book's by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Reading the Man

Reading the Man

Six Encounters with Lincoln

Six Encounters with Lincoln

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

Reading the Man

Reading the Man

Six Encounters with Lincoln

Six Encounters with Lincoln

Secession Winter

Secession Winter

Galveston and the 1900 Storm

Galveston and the 1900 Storm

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

Clara Barton, Professional Angel

Appomattox

Appomattox

Texas Almanac

Texas Almanac

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