Surrender at Appomattox: What did it really mean? [11/13/2013]

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 R. 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. Varon is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. A noted Civil War historian, she is the author of "Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859"; "We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia"; and "Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy," which was named one of the "Five Best" books on the "Civil War away from the battlefield" by the "Wall Street Journal."
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