Author Description

Product Description Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a 1953 novel of alternate history. The point of divergence occurs when the Confederate States of America wins the Battle of Gettysburg and subsequently declares victory in the "War of Southron Independence" on July 4, 1864 after the surrender of the United States of America. The novel takes place in the impoverished United States in the mid-20th century as war looms between the Confederacy and its rival, the German Union. History takes an unexpected turn when the protagonist Hodge Backmaker, a historian, decides to travel back in time and witness the moment when the South won the war. From the Inside Flap "[WARD MOORE IS] ONE OF THE BEST AMERICAN WRITERS." --Ray Bradbury The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. struggled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression. The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the nation remained one of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armies. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pursuit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and violence. Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities.... "The Civil War has been often rethought, most effectively in Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee." --Donald E. Westlake The New York Times Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. EXCERPT: I. LIFE IN THE TWENTY-SIX STATES Although I am writing this in the year 1877, I was not born until 1921. Neither the dates nor the tenses are error--let me explain: I was born, as I