Antique Ben BUTLER'S BOOK Civil War General Autobio Leather Ornate Victorian 1st

  
BUTLER "BUTLER'S BOOK" Civil War General Autobiography Illustrated Boston. Few figures from the Civil War era stirred more controversy, power, and political intrigue than Major-General Benjamin F. Soldier, lawyer, congressman, governor, and one of the most outspoken personalities of Reconstruction, Butler stood at the crossroads of some of the most dramatic events in American history.

Published in Boston in 1892, the year of Butler's death. Is his sweeping autobiography and personal account of a remarkable life that spanned the rise of industrial America, the Civil War, and the turbulent years of Reconstruction. Richly illustrated and produced as an elaborate subscription volume, the book was intended as a definitive record of Butler's career and legacy. Bound in its original decorative Victorian cloth with gilt titles and Butler's facsimile signature, this substantial volume captures the grandeur of late-19th-century publishing. Inside are 125 engravings, maps, and photogravures documenting Butler's life in law, politics, and war.

Adding a layer of historical charm, this copy bears an early ownership inscription from Lyman A. Curtis of Kennebunk, Maine, linking the book to the very New England region where Butler himself rose to prominence. A fascinating artifact of Civil War memory and Gilded Age politics. Title: Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benj. Illustrated with 125 engravings, maps, and photogravures.

This volume reviews Butler's legal, political, and military career, including his Civil War command, Reconstruction politics, and later service in Congress and as Governor of Massachusetts. The result is a large, handsomely bound volume intended to serve as both historical record and Victorian showpiece.

Butler's personal reflections on the Civil War. His controversial administration of New Orleans.

Personal anecdotes from a lifetime in law and public office. Numerous illustrations depicting figures, events, and locations from the era. The binding features embossed floral borders and gilt lettering, typical of the ornate decorative style favored by publishers in the late Victorian period. The book contains many revealing reflections on American politics and war.

Butler writes candidly about the forces that shaped the nation during the 19th century. On politics and public life. No man who enters political life can avoid misrepresentation. The public career of a man becomes the battlefield upon which every faction contends. The war brought suddenly to the surface men whose abilities might otherwise have remained unknown to their country.

Public opinion in a republic is at once the most powerful and the most fickle of rulers. These passages reveal the personality of a man who thrived amid the rough-and-tumble political culture of the 19th century. Life in America When This Book Was Printed (1892). This book appeared during a remarkable moment in American history. The year 1892 sat in the heart of the Gilded Age, a period defined by massive industrial growth, political corruption, and technological transformation.

Electric lighting was beginning to illuminate cities thanks to the inventions of Thomas Edison. Telephones were spreading rapidly, railroads connected nearly every major city, and steamships carried immigrants across the Atlantic by the millions. Photography was becoming common, and illustrated books like this one often included photogravures, a relatively new printing technology capable of reproducing photographs with impressive detail. American politics in the 1890s were fiercely contested. The nation was debating tariffs, labor rights, monetary policy, and the power of industrial trusts.

Just months after this book appeared, the Homestead Strike of 1892 erupted in Pennsylvania, highlighting the growing conflict between labor and capital. Medical science was entering a transformative era. Germ theory had only recently been accepted, antiseptic surgery was still developing, and many treatments remained primitive by modern standards. Yet the foundations of modern medicine were being laid in laboratories and hospitals across Europe and America.

Horse-drawn streetcars still dominated city transportation, though electric trolleys were beginning to appear. Newspapers flourished, political speeches drew huge crowds, and Civil War veterans were still living witnesses to the nation's most defining conflict. Books like this served not just as reading material but as family heirlooms and symbols of education and culture.

Good antique condition for a book now over 130 years old. Please review all photos carefully as they form part of the description.