New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve
Sheinkin gives young readers the causes and curses that divided
America into Union and Confederate nations in Two Miserable Presidents:
The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War,
illustrated by Tim Robinson.
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
A Beacon of Freedom Award Winner
Get the feeling something big is about to happen? Welcome to the Civil
War--one of the scariest, saddest, and occasionally wackiest stories in
American History.
**
1856**: Northern and Southern settlers attack each other in Kansas.
1858: Congressmen start sneaking guns and knives into the Senate
chamber.
1860: President James Buchanan is heard wailing, "I am the last
president of the United States!"
Unraveling a very complicated string of events--the small things, the
personal ones, the big issues--Steve Sheinkin takes readers behind the
scenes that led to The Civil War. It is a time and a war that threatened
America's very existence, revealed in the surprising true stories of the
soldiers and statesmen who battled it out.
"Chatty and accessible, this book does double duty: it introduces Civil
War history for readers who don't know much about it and supplies
browsable commentary for those familiar with the big picture...Beginning
with a look at the role cotton played in the history, his fast-paced
narrative is broken into short, tersely titled vignettes...The horrors
of slavery and battlefield slaughter are clear, as are achievements of
Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and many more."
--Booklist
Also by Steve Sheinkin:
Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous
Weapon
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism &
Treachery
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil
Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football
Team
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam
War
Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell
You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks
Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
