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Hartford: O.D. Case & Company, 1865-7. First edition, first issue (copyright 1866; title page dated 1867). Hardcover set of two. Very good. Bound in embossed leather (?) over marbled paper boards, with gilt spine titles on red leather labels, raised bands, and ( faded) marbled edges and endpapers. Octavo (9.25 x 6.75 inches). 782 pages. Extensively illustrated with steel-engraved portraits of generals, statesmen, and other eminent figures (some with tissue guards), as well as full-page maps, battle diagrams, naval scenes, and views of significant battle sites - many based on official sources.
Volume I of "The American Conflict" was published in 1864 (covering 1776 ( theoretically, in reality it centers on slabvery pre civil war to 1862). Volume II followed later, with copyright registered in 1866 and title pages dated 1867,
Apparenmtly,. O.D. Case & Company issued the first bound copies in early 1867
The title page is dated "1867" with the imprint "Hartford: O.D. Case & Company." On the verso of the title page appears the printer's line "Case, Lockwood & Company, Printers, Hartford, Conn." the key identifier of the first issue. Later issues, printed after the firm's 1868 reorganization, substituted "Case, Lockwood & Brainard" on this line and sometimes carry later title-page dates.
Volume II covers the final three years of the US Civil War, from 1862 through the surrender of the Confederacy and the aftermath of emancipation. Greeley was the founder and editor of the "New York Tribune" and one of the most influential voices of Northern reform , and his work frames the war within the moral and political evolution of the American republic, emphasizing the interplay of military events, abolitionist movements, and the failures of compromise that culminated in national conflict.
"The American Conflict" remains one of the most important contemporary histories of the Civil War, notable for its inclusion of primary documents, public speeches, and statistical data. Greeley's liberal, anti-slavery interpretation and insistence on tracing the ideological "drift of American opinion respecting human slavery" make it a cornerstone of 19th-century American historiography.
This set has a number of condition issues, most notably the (old) water staining damage to the approximate last 200 pages of Volume 1, and the ( external) binding chipping to Volume II. However, those obvious flaws aside, it's a solid set in a good unifrom period binding.
The inner marbled endpages look to have been repaired and the binding strengthened ( professionally or at least semiprofessionally) at some point. My estimation is that the original binding on this set is contemporary with publication or shortly after.
THIS IS A HEAVY SET - WEIGHS OVER 3.5 KG .
