James M. McPherson: By the Book (Interview)

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The author, most recently, of “Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief” says that coming of age in Minnesota in the ’50s, he saw the South as “a mysterious, almost foreign land.”

What books are currently on your night stand?

Ron Chernow, “Washington: A Life,” and Daniel James Brown, “The Boys in the Boat.” In very different ways, these books chronicle unlikely triumphs over seemingly insuperable odds to found a nation from 1775 to 1797 and to win an Olympic gold medal in 1936.

What was the last truly great book you read?

James Oakes, “Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865.” A powerful analytical narrative of the confluence of politics and war that ended America’s shame and trauma...