Books: Thaddeus

THADDEUS STEVENS—Alphonse B. Miller—Harper ($4).

If the Civil War was, as some have called it, the Second American Revolution, Thad Stevens was its leading Jacobin. Much attention has been focused on his thorny character, little on his role in history. The Northern beneficiaries of his Reconstruction ruthlessness have guillotined him with forgetfulness. In the sense that any interest in Stevens is new, Author Alphonse Miller contributes a useful biography, benefits largely by the sweep of the historical and political drama.

A Vermont poor boy, Thad Stevens was admitted to the bar in John Wilkes...