The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall

Philologists, rejoice!  Here is an engaging, if slightly convoluted, book about the father of American letters.  Noah Webster was a champion of Federalism through his prolific writing, and a colleage of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton and Jay.  Before compiling the eponymous dictionary, he published the "Grammatical Institute," including America's most popular spelling guide, a grammar book and a reader.  He also founded numerous newspapers and literary magazines.  Kendall's portrait provides us the "rest of the story" about our country's early years and gives Webster his place of prominence in American history.

Dawn

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This Great Struggle: America's Civil War by Steven E. Woodworth

Civil War historian Woodworth has given us a thrilling, easy-to-read, single-volume history of the War, just in time for the sesquicentennial.  All of the battle details are here, but Woodworth deftly covers the political details as well.  He gives us the Congressional machinations regarding slavery that preceded the first strike at Fort Sumter, and he delineates the personal clashes between figures.  Whether it's Lincoln vs. McClellan or Davis vs. Beauregard, the internecine battles are almost as crucial as the field ones.  This book is essential reading for everyone who forgot most of what happened during the most critical four years in American history.

Dawn

http://catalog.bartlett.lib.il.us/polaris/search/