About the Author

Jay Winik is the author of the New York Times bestseller April 1865. He is a senior scholar of history and public policy at the University of Maryland and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Reviews

"DREAMLAND is a fascinating and compelling novel. The real star, perhaps, is the city itself, which Mr.a Baker depicts in all its garish, squalid, exuberant, frightening magnificence"Geoffrey C. Ward, author of THE CIVIL WAR: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

April 1865 saw the evacuation of the Confederate capital at Richmond, the surrender of the Confederacy's two major remaining field armies, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. These events (and more) are brought to life in Winik's (public affairs, Univ. of Maryland; On the Brink) provocative narrative of the end of the Civil War. All of the major characters, from Lincoln and Ulysses Grant to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, are here, as are numerous other figures. Sometimes the prose is a little too breezy and breathless, and there are the occasional (minor) factual slips that will cause the veteran reader of Civil War narratives to wince. Nevertheless, it is Winik's willingness to embrace contingency, to ponder alternatives, and to raise thoughtful questions about what did (and did not) happen that raise this account above the typical and increasingly tiresome renditions of the conflict's climax. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

"DREAMLAND is a fascinating and compelling novel. The real star, perhaps, is the city itself, which Mr.a Baker depicts in all its garish, squalid, exuberant, frightening magnificence"Geoffrey C. Ward, author of THE CIVIL WAR: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY