April 1865: The Month That Saved America

It was a month that could have unraveled the nation; instead, it saved it. April 1865 is a gripping, panoramic narrative that takes readers through thirty tumultuous days in which the nation's future rested on a few crucial decisions and twists of fate. Here is the fall of Richmond, the rebel surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination five days later, and the tenuous beginnings of national reconciliation.

Jay Winik's brilliant narrative transforms what is often thought of as the epilogue to war into a pivotal moment in American history. This New York Times best-seller will forever change the way we see the Civil War's end and the United States's new beginning.

Jay Winik, writer and historian, has had a distinguished government career and is now a senior scholar at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. A regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, his first book, On the Brink, a chronicle of the Cold War's end, won wide critical acclaim. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

"Magnificent ... A splendid combination of history, civics lesson, and biography, but Mr. Winik is also a marvelous storyteller." - Wall Street Journal