Two Miserable Presidents: The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War

Pay with

About Two Miserable Presidents: The

Product Description May 22, 1856: A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA WALKS INTO THE SENATE CHAMBER, LOOKING FOR TROUBLE. That Congressman, Preston Brooks, was ready to attack Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts over remarks Sumner made slamming senators who supported slavery in Kansas. Brooks lifted his cane to beat Sumner, and here the action in the book stops, so that Steve Sheinkin can explain just where this confrontation started. In the process, he unravels the complicated string of events – the small things, the personal ones, the big issues– 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. Two Miserable Presidents is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. Review “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. Although Sheinkin apologizes for the dull textbooks he used to write in an author's note, his experiences give him the authority to tell the history from the inside, and he supports his material with an extensive array of source notes. His background also gives him a store of lively, interesting anecdotes, which appear here. Beginning with a look at the role cotton played in the history, his fast-paced narrative is broken into short, tersely titled vignettes ("Brother against brother?" "The bloody road to Richmond"). There's no in-depth analysis, but that doesn't equate with simplistic. The horrors of slavery and battlefield slaughter are clear, as are achievements of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and many more...” ―Hazel Rochman, Booklist About the Author Steve Sheinkin is the award-winning author of several fascinating books on American history, including The Notorious Benedict Arnold, which won the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for nonfiction. His recent book Bomb was a Newbery Honor Book, National Book Award finalist, and winner of the Sibert Award as well as the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. He lives in Saratoga Springs, NY. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. How to Rip a Country Apart On May 22, 1856, a congressman from South Carolina walked into the Senate chamber, looking for trouble. With a cane in his hand, Preston Brooks scanned the nearly empty room and spotted the man he wanted: Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Sumner was sitting at a desk, writing letters, unaware he had a visitor. He became aware a moment later, when he looked up from his papers just in time to see Preston Brooks’s metal-tipped cane rising high above his head. Stop That Cane! So Preston Brooks’s metal-tipped cane is about to land on a senator’s head. Interesting. But before that cane actually crashes onto Charles Sumner’s skull, let’s step back and take a look at the events leading up to this moment. Because, believe it or not, if you can figure out why Preston Brooks was so eager to attack Charles Sumner, you’ll understand the forces that ripped the United States apart and led to the Civil War. Mr. Brooks, please hold that cane in the air for just a few minutes. We’re going to run through a quick thirteen-step guide to tearing a country in two. Step 1: Plant Cotton After finishing college in 1792, a young man from Massachusetts named Eli Whitney headed south in search of a teaching job. He wasn’t too interested in teaching, though—he really wanted to be an inventor. Whitney got his big chance when he met Catherine Greene, who owned a plantation in Georgia. Greene told Whitney that plantation owners wanted to grow more cotton. The problem was, cotton had to be cleaned by hand and it took forever to pick the sticky green seeds out of the fluffy white cotton. If only there was